Our Thanksgiving (including hat instructions)

We had a really delightful Thanksgiving this year, complete with the boys' ever-astounding Thanksgiving hats (see 2010, 2009, 2008, you get the idea...).  This year, Ben fell back to a traditional family favorite, the turkey leg hats.  As this hat is in unsurprisingly high demand, Ben included step-by-step instructions below so you you can create your own.

Step 1: So first you need all the material - a big piece of paper for the headband, a stapler, a lunch bag (two lunch bags for each hat), a tissue, ignore the Dora book, newspaper works best for stuffing it, and tape.

Step 2: You need to stuff a lunch bag with opened up and crumpled newspaper or other paper.  Repeat.

Step 3: You put a tissue on the lunch bag.  The tissue represents the bone.  Repeat.

Step 4: Then you wrap the sides of the bone with tape, but if you are very observant you should not do it exactly how I'm doing it because you need to have the sticky side facing the bone. Repeat.

Step 5: With your large amounts of construction paper or other large amounts of paper, you cut a large headband, measure the person's head, staple both the turkey legs on and then voila!

Step 6: If you want to, you can wear the turkey hats for a picture.  As you can see in this picture, I have not quite perfected it and they still look pretty quite odd.  I kind of like them odd, though.  That's just my personality.

We had a beautiful meal (thank you, Steve!) shared with good friends.  The Morningstars (the elder ones) weren't able to join us this year because of some last-minute health complications (stupid cancer!) and I was a little worried that the celebration would seem empty without them.  But God really blessed us with full hearts and tons of gratitude that we got to spend precious time together at Disney in October and we were able to approach Thanksgiving with just the right spirit, even if our table was missing 2 important guests.

The best part of this year's celebration (besides the hats, of course) was the joy of introducing WanYing to another new holiday.  Just like the Fourth of July, Halloween, and everything else she's experienced for the first time this year, she loved it!

When Steve put the turkey on the table, she just stared at it with a giant smile glued to her face for a full 10-count.  It was hilarious!  Between the real turkey and the butter turkey (also pictured, a very important Thanksgiving tradition), I think she enjoyed the meal of a lifetime.

All of my carnivores enjoyed a very happy Thanksgiving.  We have so much to be grateful for - we just can't help but smile!