Your mission today, should you choose to accept it, is to turn this christmas-themed nutcracker:
Into a grumpy old man that does not walk around in regalia.
First, let’s get a close-up on his face:
His evil, terrifying face.
Okay, now to the transformation. Let’s start with the hat and turn it into a:
Tweed top hat, of course, through the application of cardboard and copious amounts of sticky-tape.
And now we skip to the end because someone (myself) forgot to take pictures during the process so … I present to you … Grumpy Old Man who has a name but you have to pay to find out:
Dapper, n’est-ce pas?
Look at that lapel (for which I have my sister to thank because someone (myself) got a bit sleepy).
So that, my friends, is Grumpy Old Man, my big wooden puppet. Yes, he will speak – in the sense that I will speak and pretend that he is the one speaking but not in a ventriloquist way because I can’t do that.
He’s adorable.
FACT!
The Break of Dawn 
The grumpy old man is adorable, mais oui!
I have long thought that having a knob on the top of one’s head would be handy. We have an elderly golden retriever (not so golden as he used to be) with bad arthritis. It is hard for him to get up, and a knob on his back would be convenient for assisting him in his endeavours.