There were a lot of great carved pumpkins this year, but my favorite has to be by reader Emily K., who was inspired — like many of us — by Tom Wilson’s confusing #LotsOfTigers hashtag. Her reach may have exceeded her grasp, but dammit, it’s the thought that counts.

I’ll let her explain.

There is no normal, logical explanation for why I decided to carve Tom Wilson as a tiger in my pumpkin. I guess it started a couple years ago when I jokingly carved my favorite picture of my brother into my pumpkin just to annoy him. This year my friend and I were going with a sports theme, but after having already done a decent job carving my brother’s face, I felt the need to up my game. I decided to go with my favorite sport/team for the theme and focused on one of my favorite players, Tom Wilson. I thought I’d try carving a face again but after struggling to find a picture that reached the level of difficulty and amusement I had hoped for, I turned to Russian Machine for help.

It didn’t take long for me to find the picture of Wilson as a tiger and I knew what I had to do. It was a struggle – I cut things the wrong way, pieces fell off, everything was covered in pumpkin (including myself). After many snack and drink breaks, my Tom Wilson tiger pumpkin masterpiece was finally finished and is now sitting on my kitchen counter in all its tiger glory.

Thanks for the inspiration, RMNB!

No, Emily. Thank you.