Halloween Treat

Being a bacteria-whisperer is my gift.  My sister...she makes beautiful things.

I was one of those kids that didn't actually like Halloween.  My sister usually did, and I still remember the year she went as a cheerleader, in a fabulous teal blue satin movie-worthy costume that she somehow talked my conservative-minister-grandmother into sewing for her.  I, however, made my own and walked the 4 streets of the nearest small town in the saddest looking attempt at a Tinkerbell costume ever created.  It looked like a cross between crooked cardboard angel wings and a dunce cap...with Christmas tree garland glued on, and attached over my snowsuit.  It wouldn't be confirmed that I had no artistic abilities for a few more failed Halloweens.

My sister's ghostly yard

The first Halloween I remember is a brief snippet of a memory.  All I really remember was thinking that little white poodle looked nice.  I don't know what I was wearing, but I recall I was little enough to be carried home without any candy a few minutes later after it bit me.  Then there was the year the kids a year older waited until my friend Gisele and I had finished knocking on every door in town before jumping out of some bushes to steal our candy.  Gigi, as she was known, turned out to be more formidable than I expected, and the sight of her winding up her pillowcase of candy and clubbing the neighbour boy twice in the head and then dropping him with a swift kick to the nards is with me still.  By grade 5, I had decided no amount of candy was worth it.

I still don't like dress up, but over the years I have started to love watching people dress their kids up.  My nieces and nephews...Jaycena as a cow, Jordan as and elephant, Justy as a lion, Jaycena as Pocahantas.  This year I watch my former colleagues and friends parade about their mini Ewoks, Tree frogs, Ariel's, and notably, a bottle of ketchup.

Christmas had always been my favorite holiday.  But since my family lost Jaycena in 2009, I still find Christmas Day too painful without her to enjoy.  But last year, I was in Canada for October.  My sister, ever crafty (the cheerleader costume year was not a one off) asked me to spend Halloween at her house last year.  I found a little magic in the way she does Halloween.  Bags of leaves became ghosts.  Little spiders and webs lined the yard.  And she has become a pumpkin carving master.

I am not sure how far back the tradition goes, but at some point, pumpkin carving night became an event.  It started back when her kids were little, and pumpkin carving was something they loved.  These last few years, the yard has become a gallery.  The fabulous Doug and Monique always host pumpkin carving night, and it's safe to say there may be a cocktail or a cool one as the pumpkins are reinvented.  My sister's heart is always with Jaycena, and therefore Jaycena shines through in anything my sister puts her heart into.  Pumpkin carving is no different.  If you look carefully at the pumpkins, you will see tributes to the things on her heart -- a wistful looking young girl, hearts for Jaycena, Laramie, and Brooke.  A hockey player for Brandon.  A shaft of wheat for Kevin.  The heavy toll of so many losses in a small community in such a short period of time.  But also there are symbols of music, tradition.  Her gift to me last year, were two little pumpkins designed after my two kitties -- my copilots through my 20's, 30's, careers, countries; the two little friends who never left my side until the day they left this world.

Well, Halloween sort of got into my heart too after that.  So this year she mentioned she was gathering her pumpkins for the annual event, and I remarked on Skype that I was really sorry not to be there this year, I had enjoyed it so much last year.  "Well, go buy a pumpkin and Skype in to the pumpkin party," she said.  Genius!  And so I did...I found the perfect pumpkin, I made sure to leave work at a reasonable hour, and rushed home to Skype in and carve my pumpkin.  Step 1 of pumpkin carving is to match your model to your pumpkin.  Check!

Of course my model thought it might try to eat the canvas...

Step 2, open a bottle of wine, and initiate Skype call.  I was able to join my sister, nephew, brother-in-law, and Doug, Monique, Melissa, and Matt who I will just call family because I don't know how to define the connection...but they're stuck with me now :)  It was great to have a chat, see what they had all come up with, and little to some quasi-encouraging chortles as i tackled my pumpkin with a steak knife, since I still don't have a fully stocked kitchen up here yet.  My sister got a kick out of the fact that their pumpkin carving party was an international event with my dial-in.  By the end of the pumpkin carving party, the lights were turned out, and this was the end result!

And up here in Alaska, my solitary little pumpkin actually did look a lot like a panther....

The kids loved my pumpkin when trick or treating time arrived.  And Halloween was a bit of a treat for me as well.  I think this might become one of my new favorite holidays.