Growing up my mom dedicated a drawer in the kitchen to candy, it was there for the taking year-round. Costumes are silly, like suits. And I'm more afraid of small children than any ghost or goblin.

Pumpkin carving is Halloween's saving grace, a suburban equivalent to the Tibetan sand mandala. Although I didn't cut one this year, here's a look back at pumpkins past.

In 2009 Kathryn and I carved what we call the Elvira pumpkin.

In 2010 we dominated a company pumpkin carving contest with this pumpkin lamp shade.

Shades of Orange we called it and made a timelapse video of the process.

Even tossing its rotting carcass in the dumpster was beautiful.

In 2011 I celebrated my move to Amazee Labs with a logo carving.

In 2012 I bought the biggest f****n pumpkin I could find and carved this beast. Here's how that went down.

Here I am doing some cosmetic dentistry with a bread knife.

Unfortunately, just like Frosty Snowman, all my pumpkins have since melted away. They live on in pictures. A few weeks ago I commemorated Ol' Biggin with the illustration you see up at the top of this post. I'm trying to convince Kathryn we should frame it :)

Happy Halloween!