Advent Calendar, Grab Bag, The Switch

GeneaBloggers has a Advent Calendar event this year, 24 days of family history related subjects to challenge the researcher. The prompt/challenge for December 17th is:

Author's choice. Please post from a topic that helps you remember Christmases past!

Memories flood over me reading this challenge. Being pregnant with Son # 3, wondering if we would have a Christmas baby. The twin granddaughters arriving a month early and just days before Christmas during a horrible snow storm with temps that were brutally cold. Christmas Eve spent with the boys, Man and my father at Midnight church service, the only time I remember seeing my father in a church. So many warm and fuzzy memories.

But, there are those “other” memories. Background - - we are rather a gang of teasers. We also have members of this family who are champion “guessers”. You know the kind - - they can pick up ANY wrapped gift and within minutes, and sometimes seconds, can tell you without fail what is in that package. They relish in the fact that they can “get it”. Of course, these family members are also the “snoopers”, as they are constantly monitoring the presents under the tree and know when each and every one is added to the pile. As soon as the present appears UNDER the tree, they inspect it, shaking and poking, and announcing to all near and far, “I know what it in here, it is XXX”.

Now, I have to say, this can be VERY annoying to the givers of gifts. OK, take it up another notch or two, or three. It really ticks me off. Part of the reason is that I am not a guesser. I want to wait till Christmas day and be pleasantly surprised. Man might tell you, Carol is NO fun! All that poking and shaking is part of the Christmas tradition.

I digress, so, back to ohhhhhh the late 1970s, Man and I were young, had young kids, and had lots of bills so we did the practical Christmas list, if you really wanted, say, ohhhhhh, a bench vise, you might ask for that. And, so, in the late 1970's, that is just what Man asked for and that is just what I bought him. I drug that heavy thing home, fought getting it wrapped by myself, and struggled to get it under the tree. Man came home from work, immediately started snooping and guessing and within 30 seconds, proudly announced, “Yepper, that is my bench vise”. I was so mad I was spitting. In a moment of either madness or brilliance, I haughtily announced, "No way, that is a box of bricks". Well, Man did not believe it, this discussion went back and forth for hours, for days. Bricks, vise, bricks, vise. He just would not believe it was a box of bricks.

SOOOOOOOO, here is what ole Carol did. Went to his parents and found a large building brick that was very close in size and weighed just about what the vise did. I also found a box that was almost identical in size as the one the vise was packaged in. Brick went into the box and I wrapped the brick/box in the same paper as the vise/box. Brick/box went under the tree and the vise/box was hidden away under a table in the basement, behind a LOT of craft projects and material and Carol stuff.
 

 
 

Bricks or bench vise??

 
 
 
Bricks, vise, bricks, vise, the “argument” went on right up to Christmas morning. The kids were there, Man’s parents were there, and it was finally time for Man to open his present. Of course, the kids and Man’s parents were in on my Christmas bench vise/brick switcheroooooooo.

Need I say, he was VERY VERY surprised when after all this, all he got was a box of building brick! TA DA! I wish I had a photo of his face!

Yaaaa, I gave him the bench vise right after this, but I have NEVER let him live it down. (Me bad!)

Bricks, vise, bricks, vise.

*I swear, bench vise pictured is just like the one I purchased for Man way back in the late 1970's! Even the same brand. Thanks to Craftsman Tools and Sears!

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