Halloween is not the same without a pumpkin just like Christmas is not the same without the three. You can buy a carved one but if you want to do it yourself, here is how you do it. You first have to go to the supermarket and get a pumpkin. You can make this a family activity with your kids by letting them choose it. Once this is brought home, both of you can decide what kind of face the pumpkin will have. It can be happy, angry or something funny that your neighbors will find entertaining.
With a pen, they can outline the face so once everything inside the pumpkin is removed, you can easily cut holes for the eyes, nose and mouth.
But before you do that, put the pumpkin on a flat surface that is already covered with newspaper. Get a long serrated knife and then cut out a circle around the stem of the pumpkin and place this on top of the newspaper.
With the pumpkin open, it will be easy for you and your kids to put your hands inside and get the contents out. Since these are still edible put them in a container so you can use this later on to make a salad or a pumpkin pie. There will probably be a few things left inside so use a large spoon to get the remaining stuff.
Don't forget to clean the lid of the pumpkin too. You should also put holes here so heat can escape when you this is placed back on top with a candle inside.
Now it is time to cut the marked areas for the face of the pumpkin. For this, you will once again use the serrated knife by cutting around the edges so you can easily push this out with your hand. After you done this, put a candle inside or a small electric light so people will be able to see your wonderful creation at night.
If you decide to use a candle, monitor it regularly since the wind could blow out the light. If you don't want to do this, choose a small electric light instead since the light will only go out when you switch it off or unplug this from the socket.
Your experience in carving one pumpkin will make it easier to make a few more so you can put one outside and maybe a couple of them indoors. Since an open pumpkin does not that long, you have to prepare these the night before.
But there are ways to preserve the pumpkin so this will not rot overnight. Your first option will be to place it inside a bathtub of cold water and pouring in some picking powder which keeps keep the pumpkin from drying out and fresh. You can also preserve this by putting it inside the refrigerator when it is not being displayed.
Halloween happens once a year so a lot of people make the most of it by decorating the house and preparing the decorations. Some people recycle what they used last year while others buy new ones and one of them is the pumpkin. For the family to be able to help out in carving the pumpkin, the first thing you have to do is get it from the grocery, cut it open using a serrated knife, taking the contents out and then putting a candle or small light.
Seattle, 1911. The rain had a way of making even the brightest lamps flicker, turning the new Hotel Sorrento into something from another century. Its Italian Renaissance façade gleamed in the mist, a jewel among the young city’s hills. Inside, guests whispered about literary soirées, champagne toasts, and the occasional strange chill that crept through the corridors after midnight.
The hotel’s most notable visitor was Alice B. Toklas, who arrived with a small entourage from Paris. She had come to visit old friends and escape the noise of Gertrude Stein’s salon for a while. Alice occupied a suite on the fourth floor, Room 408, overlooking Madison Street — a room she adored for its quiet and the soft hum of the rain.
But one morning, Alice vanished. Her trunk remained open, perfume bottles neatly lined on the dresser, a book of Stein’s poems lying face down as if she had meant to return any moment. No one ever found out what happened. Some said she left for San Francisco. Others whispered that she never left the Sorrento at all.
The Ghost Returns
Decades later, guests began to speak of a woman in a long gray dress, her hair pinned in the fashion of another time. She appeared in mirrors, in the reflection of elevator doors, or standing by the fourth-floor window, staring into the fog. Staff reported that her perfume — violets and tobacco — would fill empty rooms, and the lights would flicker just before she appeared.
One night in the 1970s, a housekeeper named Marjorie was closing up when she saw the woman gliding down the hallway. Thinking it was a guest, she called out — but the woman turned, smiled faintly, and vanished, leaving the scent of violets in her wake. The room at the end of the hall, 408, was found unlocked, though no one had been checked in.
To this day, visitors claim to feel cold spots near that same room. Bartenders have seen glasses slide an inch across the polished wood bar when no one was near. The elevator sometimes stops on the fourth floor without being called.
And every so often, a guest reports hearing faint jazz music echoing from the past — a phantom soirée that never ends.
The Last Entry
When the hotel underwent renovations in the 1980s, workers found something strange behind a wall panel on the fourth floor: a small notebook, water-stained but legible. Inside were Alice’s handwriting — lines of poetry, recipes, and one chilling final entry:
“The rain has not stopped. I hear voices in the corridor, though I am quite alone. The mirror shows another face — not mine, but one smiling back at me.”
They sealed the notebook in glass and placed it in the hotel’s archive. But guests say, when the night is still and the rain falls like it did in 1911, you can see her shadow at the window — waiting, always waiting, for a friend who never came.
Followup:
Why ghosts are thought to linger in the Sorrento Hotel?
Why the Alice B. Toklas hauntings began in the 1980s?
The Sorrento Hotel in Seattle underwent a major renovation in the early 1980s after being purchased by the Malone family. The $4.5 million project, completed in 1981, aimed to restore the hotel's original elegance and charm, which included uncovering hidden Honduran mahogany paneling in the Fireside Room and updating its style.
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