Surprise!

Just when we had given up hope of eating a fresh Calabaza pumpkin this year—because millions of little green worms invaded our pumpkin patch—Mom came in with a surprise.

I was inside doing some odds and ends, while Mom was outside mowing the lawn. Around 4:00, Mom opened the door and asked me to put the mail on the counter in the kitchen. Then she asked me to go outside and get the rest of it. Every time a package arrives in the mail it feels like Christmas to me—because I always forget what I had ordered. I had no idea what I had ordered that Mom would need my help bringing in. Then again—Mom didn’t tell me to bring in the rest of the “mail”, just the rest of “it”.

Once outside I began looking for this huge package that she needed help carrying. There on the floor of the lawn mower was the big “package”. It weighed twenty pounds, and two-thirds of it was wrapped in green and the rest of it was wrapped in a mixture of orange and yellow. Mom had begun to mow down the stems that were left in the pumpkin patch when she spotted a strangely large object. At first she couldn’t figure out what it was, but upon closer observation she realized it was a Calabaza—a Spanish pumpkin.

Everyone was so delighted, so ecstatic, and totally shocked to have found such a big pumpkin. I cannot wait to roast it with butter, cinnamon, and maple syrup. Yum! Yum!