When my kids were young and living at home, I would make a Jack-O-Lantern for Halloween. I would cut the top off, remove the seeds, scrape the walls thin, carve a face, put in a candle and sit it in a spot so everyone could see all of my hard work. I was usually lucky if it lasted through Halloween, considering I usually made my Jack-O-Lantern around the 1st of October. Then the kids grew up, moved on, and this little tradition stopped.
One year, a friend brough over her version of a Jack-O-Lantern as a gift to me. She had done the usual, cut off the top and taken out the seeds, but she didn’t scrape the walls and cut out the face. Instead she drew a face, filled the hole with potting soil and planted pansies. This was the cutest little Jack-O-Lantern I have ever seen. And it was so easy to make. This one lasted through the whole month of October and when it was time to take down the Halloween decorations and put up Thanksgiving, I simply dug a hole in the yard and put my pumpkin inside allowing the beautiful pansies to continue to grow.
