Pumpkin Carving

I had hoped our pumpkins would come from our own garden this year. Sadly, they did not grow much larger than an inch or two. So these beauties came from Safeway. Better luck next year.

Collin wanted to draw a scary face on his pumpkin. I helped him carve it out when he was finished. As he posed for a picture, I asked him to make a face that looks like his pumpkin. Luke followed suit to make for a cute photo.

This was just a precursor to our annual pumpkin party with extended family. We usually get together for a family night to carve pumpkins and enjoy pumpkin pie. This year I planned a special family home evening lesson that made use of some fun family history photos I had recently scanned from Granny's old scrapbooks.

I made an ancestor graveyard using cereal-box tombstones that included the names of fourteen ancestors that had passed on, as well as their birth and death dates. I then handed out a blank pedigree to each family. Families worked together to see who could complete the pedigree the fastest. Of course, to win the race, the pedigree also had to be accurate.

Afterword, we enjoyed looking at old family photos. I had printed out photos of each of the ancestors and we matched them to the tombstone. It helped us put a face to the name. We sang "Family History-I Am Doing It". The song explains to little ones that someday we will have the chance to meet all of these people (our great-grandparents). Our family will be together forever.

We ended with prayer, the anticipated pumpkin-lighting ceremony, and the upside-down pumpkin pie. I look forward to that treat all year. Yum!