Smashing Tradition

When all is said and done, there a lot of family traditions that are just mom-doing-everything-for-everyone but we call it a family activity. Remember pumpkin carving? How many of you actually carried the pumpkins from the car to the kitchen (or designated safe to slime zone), cut open the pumpkin, pulled all the guts out, carved the faces, cleaned up the safe to slime zone, lined up the pumpkins on the porch/step/yard, and lit the candles in all the pumpkins?

I know I did.


Mason placed one fingertip to the cold, viscous, stringy pumpkin innards and declared himself a non-participant. Coop took one sniff of the inside of the pumpkin and would have no more.

But there is one tradition -- that falls on or around Nov. 1 -- that truly belongs to the kids. Smashing pumpkins day. The rules? 1. Pick up your pumpkin and throw it on the ground. Exhilarating. 2. Throw pumpkin parts in the trash.

This is a tradition I'm keeping around.