H and I have been together for almost four years, and for the majority of the time I totally forget that we are from different countries. Those times when I do realize that I am in fact dating a man from Iceland and not America are often surrounding cultural traditions that he has never experienced. One such tradition, carving pumpkins.
One of my favorite things about our relationship is being able to share traditions from our culture with each other so when we walked into the store this weekend and I saw a box of pumpkins I knew what our Sunday afternoon plans would be.
Straight from the USA, Grasker, translation:pumkpkins! And in case you have never seen a carved pumpkin the store left an example for us to follow.
As we were picking out our pumpkin H started asking questions about how the whole pumpkin carving process works.Our conversation went something like this…
H: How do we carve it?
K: With the little carving tools from the pumpkin kit
H: I don’t think they have these kits your talking about
K: They have to, they probably were shipped with the pumpkins
5 minutes later
H: Looks like your precious pumpkin kit isn’t here. You Americans and all your extra gadgets, I am sure we can figure it out.
K: (completely annoyed) I guess so
H: What kind of picture do you like to carve?
K: I don’t know, I always use the sketches that come in the pumpkin kit.
Point of story, while pumpkins have arrived finally in Iceland my beloved pumpkin kits were no where to be found. So off we went with our pumpkin in tow and H reaching the conclusion that I have never carved a pumpkin in my life (only partially true, I get bored of carving after a bit). Regardless of this fact I think H was more than excited to have a pumpkin to carve, he couldn’t help but play like the little kids in the pumpkin patch on the walk home.
H decided he would handle all the carving duties and I would deal with the cleaning of the pumpkin. Fine by me. As soon as we walked in the door H’s got right to carving his first pumpkin.
While H was carving the pumpkin open he asked me what the inside of the pumpkin was like. My answer, messy. Once H got the pumpkin open he gave his own opinion on the inside of the pumpkin. Apparently the inside of the pumpkin reminded him of a shriveled up brain, because he has so much experience with dealing with brains.
No matter what I always seem to make a mess when cleaning the pumpkin. Part of the experience, as I told H as my excuse to why the pumpkin was all over the kitchen floor:)
Once the pumpkin was cleaned I passed the project back to H where his design side came out and he got to work drawing a photo he found online. Sometimes I don’t know who I’m dating, my drawing skills end at stick figures. H was out to prove a point to me, you don’t need silly pumpkin kits to make an awesome pumpkin.
Yes, H wore his orange pants to match the pumpkin, he went all in for his first pumpkin carving experience:)
Once his pumpkin was complete the countdown was on for it to be dark enough to light up his jack-o-lantern. While we waited I had to treat him to pumpkin seeds, another important part of the pumpkin carving experience.
The verdict, he was not a fan of the pumpkin seeds, but the boy has skills when it comes to carving pumpkins.
He proved his point that he doesn’t need a pumpkin carving kit to create his jack-o-lantern master piece. I proved my point that I most definitely do. Just another fun filled night in this international household.
Question of the Day?
Do you use a pumpkin carving kit or just a plain ole knife? Are you a fan of roasted pumpkin seeds?
