The Best Christmas Present Ever

I was blessed with parents capable of thinking "outside the box." This manifests itself in various ways, but where the grandchildren are concerned it is particularly fun. Isaac, for instance, is a person Grandma Mikkelsen understands. So when she says she has something special for him, you know it's gonna be good. This Christmas one of his gifts was...Turkey feet! When Grandma and Grandpa butchered a turkey for Christmas dinner, they kept the feet with a certain little boy in mind. After neatly cleaning and preserving them, they were presented to Isaac, who was ecstatic. The boy hasn't been the same since. For the rest of our Christmas holiday the turkey feet were either in his pocket or tucked up his sleeves for hands to startle and scare people. He was introduced to some new people, and when he pulled out his hand to shake...turkey feet. When he was told to go wash his hands for dinner, his reply was, "But they're already clean. They've been baked!"

An alarming moment was when he was trying to get out of the car one night, and as he jumped over the back seat he tripped and landed head down in a heap on the floor. I ran over to see what had happened and found him crying in fetal position with his nasty turkey feet (tucked into his sleeves for hands) over his face. My wild imagination took over and I screamed, believing for one half-second that the child was morphing into a creature right before me. Ridiculous, I know, but it was dark and I didn't recognize them. Isaac was delighted with my reaction and began to laugh through his tears.

Moral of the story: If you want to make your son/grandson really happy, give him your left-over turkey feet.