Parkinson Pumpkin Carve

So every family has their traditions, and this one is ours. Pumpkins. There's nothing quite like reaching your nice, clean hand into a mess of slimy, orange pumpkin guts. We have been carving pumpkins every year since I can remember and each year we discover some new things to help us out.

Here are some of my favorite tips/tricks:

• Instead of cutting the top off of your pumpkin, cut a hole in the bottom. Sit the candle on the bottom piece and replace the top. You still have a handle to carry your pumpkin, and you aren't burning yourself when you reach in to light the candle.
  
• Take an old beater from a hand mixer and put it in your handheld electric drill. Use this new combination to "gut" your pumpkin with speed. They make this commercially now, but we have been doing this for years.


• Use blue painter's tape to keep your paper pattern taped down on the outside of your pattern.
• After you have poked all arou
  nd the lines of your pattern, dust the pumpkin with flour and the holes will show up white.
  
• Carve inside out - This is especially important for more complex patterns with very small spaces. Start at the inside of your p
  umpkin, or the inside of the pattern where it is most intricate and work outward from there.

Here's what we did last year...

And here are our awesome pumpkins from this year - not quite as intricate as we were in a hurry to watch a certain football game. I bet you can't guess which one.