Well, I have been saving this hat for a special day, and I guess that special day is going to have to be the last day of this blog.  It was supposed to be the day our second child is born, but he hasn’t gotten around to doing that yet, so I’m blogging this hat as historic #365.  This hat, I should point out, was a Christmas gift from El.  On Day 300 of the blog I wrote about my “Lia’s Daddy” hat, which was the one I got the Christmas before Lia was born.  Well, in case anyone didn’t know what our baby is going to be called, this is the hat I got in anticipation of Alexander being born.

This hat is my favorite color combination of blue and gold.  The hat itself is a blue acrylic/wool blend, stretch-fit with a spandex headband.  The front has the words “Team Alex” in gold block letters.  Because, who really is on your team more than your father, right?  And the back, in homage to the Lia’s Daddy hat, there is “Christmas ’09″ written in gold script, next two two little baby footprints done in white and gold.

So… that’s it for The Great 365 Days of Hats Project.  I have to say I really enjoyed writing this blog.  It was nice to share my collection and my love of hats with everyone.  As I’m sure you noticed, my wonderful wife and daughter creeped in to this blog quite a bit.  I’m going to keep blogging, but I’m going to move on to a more family-centric blog soon.  Once I know what I’m going to call it, I’ll make sure to come back and link it here.  Thank you all for reading, it has definitely been my pleasure.

Day 1 of this blog was a Canada hat, so it seemed fitting that I put a US-themed hat at the end.  I have a special hat planned for tomorrow, so I won’t put it absolutely last, but this American flag hat is the penultimate entry for The Great 365 Days of Hats Project.

This hat is red cotton that is so soft and broken in that it feels so, so good.  The front has an intentionally worn looking patch of the American flag, and the back has a velcro adjuster.

If this hat looks familiar, then you deserve a gold star.  I blogged its “fraternal hat twin” in early July.  I bought the tan one first, then this hat, because I liked the tan one so much I knew I’d need a backup.  I know I’ve said it before, but I think in reality these are the most comfortable hats I own.  And, I think, a fitting almost-end for this blog.

I guess you could say I sort of grudgingly got this hat.  I wanted to be thorough, and the Cubs had been using this red billed hat for road games for a while.  So, since I didn’t have it, I had to get it.  But secretly I wished they’d just stuck to the normal blue bill on the road.  Luckily I got my wish this past baseball season, when this red bill was dropped.  So now this hat is a monument to my grudging acceptance of something I don’t like, and the eventual triumph over it.  Kind of like the Sabres’ jumping slugalo logo, which is definitely going to be GONE next year.  We won’t think about the dozens of outdated hats that will leave me with, though.

This hat is a wool/acrylic blend, and adjustable with a velcro strap.  The cap is royal blue with a red bill and button.  The front has the beautiful red C logo of the Cubs, and the back has the word “Cubs” written in block letters on the adjustable strap.

I can’t believe I’m 2 days away from the end of this blog.  And I just found a couple of hats I hadn’t blogged yet.  Stupid memory.  Oh well.  At least I know one of the hats that will still make it in to this blog come hell or high water.  I wonder what I’ll do to make sure I get some computer time every day once this blog is over!

Not that I would expect any of you to remember, but way back on Day 5 of this blog, January 16, 2009, I blogged this hat.  Not THIS hat, but the other one I bought at the same time.  This particular hat is my “backup” and it has never been outside of the plastic bag it was shipped in until I took these photos.  It is now back in it’s bag for safe keeping.

This hat is navy blue and 100% wool, sized 7 3/4.  The front has the Indians alternate logo, complete with silver outline stitching, that was used from 2002 to 2007.  They still use a version of this hat, but the silver is long gone.  The back has the MLB batter logo done in red, white and silver.

I can’t believe it has been so long between these hats, considering they were bought at the same time.  It’s the first and only time I have bought two of the exact same hat on the same online purchase, just because I’m crazy enough to want a backup hat.  On the plus side, the hat from day 5 has gotten lots of wear it never would have gotten had I not known I had this baby safely tucked away.

This is another one of those hats that I can’t believe I haven’t blogged before now.  One of my favorites in my collection, you would have thought I would have done this one already.  But I can’t find it anywhere, so I’m going to have to assume I haven’t done it yet.  As you may be able to tell, it has gotten a bit of wear, and fits really great on my head.

This hat is 100% wool and fitted to size 7 3/4.  It is royal blue with a red button.  The front has the iconic Cubs’ red C logo.  The back has the MLB batter logo in traditional red, white and blue.

This hat was a gift from my friend Alex.  He got it on vacation in Chicago, at a store right outside of Wrigley.  It’s awesome, he got the correct size and everything.  I don’t even think he got himself a hat this good.  I really am very grateful for it.  None of us had a lot of money back then, and so it was definitely a gift I was happy to get.  And I still wear it often, and with pride.

Today was my first day of adult ice skating lessons.  Helmet mandatory.  Well, this is my helmet.  The lessons were a gift from my in-laws, and the helmet I got with Christmas money from my Father-in-Law.  Hopefully I won’t need it to save my life or anything, but it’s good to know I have it just in case.

This helmet, apparently, is a Bauer HH4000L model.  It’s black.  And plastic, with foam.  And a strap.  I got it used, and it had Montreal Canadiens stickers on it, but I peeled those off.

My lesson was… interesting.  It wasn’t so much of a lesson as a “go out there and skate.”  Well, I can’t skate.  So I held on to the boards and shuffled along for 20 minutes until I thought a hip was going to pop out of socket.  Then I rested, and the instructor advised me I could probably get my money back.  But I declined.  I will persevere, because I REALLY want to learn how to skate, at least a little bit, before my kids do!

A few weeks ago, I blogged the Indians version of this hat, and mentioned that I had already blogged this one.  Well… I was wrong.  I spent half an hour combing the archives today and to my surprise I hadn’t blogged this one yet.  It was another one with the same logos on it, but still different.  See what happens when you have so many hats?  It’s hard to keep track of them all.

This “Franchise” hat is blue garment washed cotton, easy-fit sized to XL.  The front has the Cubs C logo done in felt with white embroidery around it.  The back has the walking cub over C alternate logo.

I definitely wore this hat a lot.  I wore it camping a few times, and it definitely is showing those signs of wear.  I don’t know what it is, but I have always loved the simplicity of the Cubs’ cap.  It’s definitely one of my favorite looking hats.

It really is getting down to the time where I have no idea what I have blogged and what I haven’t.  I spent a good 20 minutes sifting through the past 357 days worth of photos to see if I had blogged this hat before, and since I didn’t see it, I’ll assume I haven’t.  It’s getting tough, though.

This hat is black cotton with a plastic adjustable strap.  The front has 3 of the Grateful Dear “Dancing Bears” across it.

I got this hat when I was first getting in to the Grateful Dead.  It’s when it dawned on me that being a fan of a band is less easy to advertise than being a fan of a sports team.  I’m not sure this hat ever looked good on me, or that it isn’t stupid, but I did wear it a lot in college.  Then again, I had terrible taste back then.

I have definitely been saving this hat for near the end of the blog, for a number of reasons.  One is that I never felt like I had much time to blog this hat and do it justice.  Secondly, it’s gross and falling apart, and I wasn’t looking forward to putting it on my head.  And finally, it has a lot of memories attached to it, and I knew it was going to be garbage when the blog was done, and I was having a hard time letting go.

This hat is an old foam/mesh style hat.  The bill and mesh back are red, with a red plastic adjustable strap.  The front is (or rather was, before it crumbled) foam with a white shell.  The words “Troop 104 BSA” are done in red flocking on the front.  I also decorated the hat with a number of pins that I got at different boy scout trips.

“BSA” is Boy Scouts of America, and Troop 104 was the troop I was in as a kid.  We were a really, really active troop, and I have lots of great memories of trips to different places.  I’m pretty sure we got these hats before the 1985 jamboree, but I obviously wore it for a long time, because there’s pins from 1988 and 1990 on there as well.  It’s funny how a hat can bring back so many memories of people you knew and places you visited and things you did.  But this hat does that in spades.  I’m going to be sad to throw it out, but glad that I at least get to save the pins.  I couldn’t have asked for a better activity to be a part of when I was a kid.

Today was Lia’s 2nd Birthday party.  As I blogged yesterday, she’s a New Year’s Day baby, but today we had a little party for her.  We had lots of finger foods and Lia’s favorite… CAKE!  And, of course, party hats.  You can’t have a birthday party for a 2 year old without party hats, right?

This is your basic cardboard cone party hat.  It has an elastic band to hold the hat on that goes under your chin.  The hat says “Happy Birthday” surrounded by balloons and streamers.

I think Lia had a very good birthday.  She even seemed to enjoy wearing the pigtails.  And she got lots of new accessories for her play house that Santa brought her.  So all in all, a successful birthday for Lia Marie.