Monday, October 29, 2007

Dancing 'round the Jack O'Lanterns.


We have been carving our pumpkins slowly but steadily - one or two a day. All of my late night work means my carpal tunnel is crazy-who knew that working late every night on a computer + carving thick pumpkins with the same right hand meant paralysis? Well, perhaps I exaggerate a tiny bit. I discovered that as long as I don't need that right hand to also write, drive, or feed myself I'm doing OK.

We have carved several jack o'lanterns and have 2 or 3 biggies to go. The boys love it - determining expression and mood, shapes, placement, size, unique features. Tonight we had to "test" a bunch of them together after we completed 2 more. The photo itself is not that stunning - glowing pumpkins on a dark night.


What you cannot see is my two little guys prancing around in the dark hamming it up for the camera taking photos in pitch blackness but for the glow of the candles. I lightened a few up and saw them--running, spinning, smiling, posing. Here is one of them:

The darkness coming earlier means the boys have been outside several nights in the dark before bedtime. The love it. We had the telescope out a few evenings ago and they could look and see details on the moon. They see stars. They look at the moon. Light their pumpkins. And dance around, all snuggled up in PJ's and warm fuzzy robes.

5 comments:

Elisheva Hannah Levin said...

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown...

Or great pictures anyway. Your pumpkin patch looks to be loaded with sincerity and your little goblins dances are magical! Happy Halloween.

And point your telescope to the east and take a look at Comet P17 Holmes, too! It's quite nice right now.

denise said...

Thanks for the reminder! We haven't looked for that specifically because the recommended time we saw earlier was 2AM or so - long after the drive to bring out the telescope subsides! :) But we did get to see it tonight -- just not quite in its full glory.

I remember the sky at night in NM - and I remember the first time at altitude outside of Santa Fe I SAW the Milky Way. Actually, every time I look up at the stars at night, I think of NM and how the sky was just littered with stars. There are not so many to see here.

Of course I also remember sitting on my porch in Cochiti Lake and listening to the coyotes as I looked at the sky just packed with twinkling lights. Memories! :)

Lizz said...

Oww fun!

I really like those pics in the dark. I think they are magical.

And I need to look for that comet.

Anonymous said...

In case you needed it: here is permission for Mommy to take a break and regain use of both hands.

denise said...

Karen--I know --it seems absurd, doesn't it? :) But it happened so slowly...working on deadline at night, doing a pumpkin or two each evening with the boys...and something just made it to the critical point and voila - no hand! Better today though.