It’s a Cold Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

 

Okay, this has nothing to do with the post that follows, but there are grandparents reading this, so I just have to post these three pictures of Connor doing his Connor thing.  If you have no interest in him, skip on down. (although, I must warn you, he will probably show up frequently.  I’m a proud mama.)

Okay, now down to business.

This year Connor is old enough to get involved with the holiday festivities that are just around the corner, so we decided to begin his “American holiday education” with Halloween.  We are determined not to let him grow up thinking that the biggest holidays in the world are Chinese New Year, Mid-Autumn Festival, and National Day! 

His lessons began with the Charlie Brown Halloween video.  It quickly became his favorite, and he constantly requests “Charlie Brown, Mama!  Big Pumpkin, Daddy!” 

The next step was putting autumn/Halloween decals on our windows.  This was good, except that now he always wants to stand on the windowsills.  Mama probably shouldn’t have started that.

We have also decided to have a Halloween party this year.  We’ll play some games, have lots of snacks, and – most importantly – get the students into our home.  The kids are extremely shy about spending time with foreigners, so hosting events like movie nights, game nights, and parties have become some of our most successful forms of Outreach, and we’ve already made a great contact this semester with a new Seeker.

Anywho, back to Connor’s education.  Pumpkin is stocked in the veggie shops on campus pretty much year-round, which is one of the great benefits of living in China.  Connor and I bought two from our favorite veggie ladies to make into jack-o-lanterns, something I’ve only done once that I remember (I was never allowed near the carving tools, which was wise, since I am somewhat clumsy.  I choose to think this is an endearing quality, but my parents – who had to clean up countless spills, including the notorious plate of spaghetti and the glass of Coke that splashed all the way to the ceiling – would probably disagree).  We were going to wait until Saturday to do the carving, but had time Friday afternoon before Connor’s nap, so we got down to it. 

(Justin is well acquainted with my “endearing” traits, so he did all the knife work and I got to use the magic marker.  This worked well.  Smart man I married.)

Connor helped, in his own way.  He was super excited about the pumpkin, kept calling it the “big pumpkin” from Charlie Brown.  Note the actual size of the pumpkin.

He got bored after a while and played catch with himself, throwing the ball down the street and chasing after it.

And then he decided things looked interesting again, and we went from two jack-o-lanterns for the Halloween party to just one.

Yeah, he dropped it.  Takes after his mama, for sure.

And then he thought the goop from the inside looked pretty cool, so he grabbed a spoon and stirred it all up.  By this time, we were pretty cold, so we headed inside to finish up our first Family Pumpkin Carving Adventure.

We placed the pumpkin outside our window, on the little ledge between the glass and the iron bars so the garbage folks wouldn’t think it was trash and toss it into the wagon.  It looks kind of like a jailed pumpkin, come to think of it.

And – here’s the great part – it snowed that night.  And the next night.  I so wanted to have a snowy pumpkin picture, because it’s just the perfect example of Harbin weather, but alas, the wind did not cooperate.  Use your imagination.

Oh, and get this – last year, which was unseasonably cold and snowy (so say the natives) we had our first snow about a week before Thanksgiving.  This year it’ s a month earlier.

Yup, it is definitely going to be a long, bitter winter, Charlie Brown!