Anyway, a couple days before Halloween Stephan text me to tell me he may come home a little early. I text back and asked if we could carve pumpkins that night. He said sure. We'd go to Butlers Orchard and get the pumpkins.
He comes home and I'm making dinner. After the normals hellos he asked if we could have 10 minutes to write up a job application. I said sure.
30 minutes later I asked him how much longer he thought he'd be. "Not long," he answered.
Dinner's cooling by this point and I asked if what he was doing couldn't wait. He finally said it could. "What time does Butler's close?" I asked. "Six," he answered. "Are you sure?" I asked. "Yes."
We ate dinner. Stephan must have gotten nervous because he decided to check Butler's hours right before we left at 5:45. "Oh..." he said sheepishly from the computer. "They close at 5:30..."
I can't say I wasn't disappointed, but I tried to be gracious. Stephan insisted we'd still get pumpkins. We'd go to Whole Foods. So we got in the car and off to Whole Foods we went.
We arrived there to see their pumpkin stock severely depleted. There were 5 pumpkins, all of which were either flat, moldy, or leaking. And they had not stems - and I believe every proper Jack O'Lantern needs a stem!
Stephan switched into superhero mode at this point. His wife would have a pumpkin! He insisted we'd go over to a Giant nearby and there would be pumpkins - he was sure. So in the car we got and off to Giant we went. On the way we passed a Michael's. "Would they have pumpkins?" Stephan asked.
I grew up with a very crafty mother. I know Michaels. "No," I said.
Giant's pumpkin stock was no better than Whole Foods. All their flat-sided, moldy, leaking (and stemless) pumpkins were in a grocery cart sitting lonely outside - not even holding it's illustrious place by the apple cider anymore. It had been banished.
At that point I just sighed and told Stephan we should go back to Whole Foods and get some of the little pumpkin pie pumpkins. We didn't need big pumpkins. But he was intent. He agreed to go back to Whole Foods, but he was certain two of the flat-moldy-leaking (stemless) pumpkins had to be ok. They just had to.
On the way back, he drove right in front of Michael's. "PUMPKINS!" he screamed and jerked the wheel to park in a parking space. I grabbed to "Oh shoot" handle and Stephan was out of the car before I could protest, running into the vestibule of the store, elated to have found pumpkins - crates and crates of perfectly shaped pumpkins! ...in three neat sizes...all with perfect stems and no flat sides or mold or leaks...
I walked up to him as he picked up one of the heavenly squashes and tried not to say anything stupid. His face fell into a confused scowl. He tossed the thing up and down, surprised at how light it was. He looked around at the signage and his confusion was dispelled.
"Ah man!" he cried, looking down at the traitorous pumpkin. "These are fake pumpkins!" He was aghast at the very thought. "Who would make fake pumpkins? Look!" he pointed to a nearby display. "You can even carve these fake pumpkins! Who would want to do that!" He tossed the pumpkin back into it's bin, totally disgusted.
I stepped in and tried to comfort him then. Pumpkins aren't that important, I said. We can stop looking and go home. We have cider. Let's go mull it and read together.
"Oh no!" Stephan said, leading me back out to the car. "We're finding pumpkins!"
So back to Whole Foods we went. I picked out one of the little pumpkin pie pumpkins that would suffice for my purposes and began thinking of the pie I'd make with the innards. Stephan was once again inspecting the dregs of the carving pumpkins. "Are you sure this one won't work?" he asked, bringing me one of the better specimens.
My heart gave in then. He wanted so badly to get me a pumpkin. He was trying so hard. He loved me so much and wanted me to be happy. Suddenly that pumpkin was the perfect-est I'd ever seen.
"Actually," I said, putting down my little stemmed pumpkin and taking the one he was holding, "this is a perfect pumpkin! I didn't see it the first time. Is there another one for you?" He found one for himself. "Are you sure you like that pumpkin?" he said suspiciously. I smiled. "Yes!" I said, taking his hand and walking toward the check out.
On the way there, something caught my eye. It was an impact display on the end of one of the aisles, full with spider webs, autumn leaves ... and pumpkins. Well preserved pumpkins. Well colored pumpkins. "Oh, look there..." I let slip. "Maybe they'd sell us their display pumpkins..."
Out came the cape again. Stephan was on the case. He threw his pumpkin into my arms and made for the customer service counter, where he asked if he could purchase two of their display pumpkins. They consented, and we took two of their display pumpkins and replaced them with our flat-moldy-leaking (stemless) pumpkins.
I was elated. My pumpkin was the perfect size, the perfect color, the perfect shape, and had a proper stem!
We went right home and set to carving them. I think the end results were very nice. We roasted the seeds and made pumpkin pies from the flesh. I also invented a yummy pumpkin salad recipe later in the week.
And as if a night of valiant pumpkin hunting weren't enough, my husband finished the night by carving the cutest but most frightening thing into his pumpkin... You'll see what I mean.
(Stephan valiantly made sure his pumpkin was dead before the carving began)
(my pumpkin had a proper stem!)
(I carved leaves blowing in the nighttime wind)
(Stephan carved me!)
I think they came out well. (You can see Stephan carved "I LOVE KARI" onto the side of his. I have the best husband in the world!)
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