i have a hard time buying presents for my mom. if she sees something she wants, she buys it (mostly), so coming up with something creative is sometimes tricky for me. a few months ago my friend had an online tupperware party and as i was looking through the site i happened upon these:
ice cube trays with lids, so the ice doesn't taste weird!
i knew immediately that this was what my mom needed. when we lived with my parents while dave was in graduate school we never used ice because it always tasted so gross coming out of the trays in their freezer. it was something she didn't have, something useful, something creative. i was so excited.
cut to the day after christmas. i accidentally had it shipped to our house so i wrapped it here and brought it with us to give to her a day late. i handed her the gift, feeling so excited, and turned around to sit down and watch her open it. as i did so, i looked into the kitchen and was reminded...
she got a new fridge a few years ago.
with an ice maker.
i was mortified. we had never had a fridge with water and ice in the door, not in my entire life! i had just completely forgotten about their new(ish) fridge. i wanted to grab it out of her hands before she could open it and see with her own eyes what a complete doofus i am. i begged her to let me keep it since our fridge doesn't have an ice maker and we could use it and i would get her something else, but she never did give it back to me.
i got a thank you note from my dad yesterday thanking us for the gifts, and this is what he said about it, after thanking me for the books i sent him:
And, of course there is also her new ice cube tray – what can I say.
It sure is something we didn’t have.
or need, might i add.
please tell me you've done something this stupid before? please?
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9 comments:
Thanks for the laugh. This is so something I would do. I will think of an example when I am not tired. But believe me, I have done worse!
I was excited this year when target had the Charlie brown Christmas tree as a daily deal. I thought it'd be the perfect gift for my stepdad. Flash forward to two weeks before Christmas, I'm talking to my mom on the phone about Christmas decorations and she mentions their Charlie brown tree. I asked her, what tree? I apparently bought my stepdad that tree a year or two ago and didn't remember. Yeah, so I had to go get something else for him.
i know i've done it, but unforunately i can't remember it!
If her grandchildren are like my children, they might still like those trays to make homemade popsicles in the summer.
That is so funny! Thanks for sharing that- and I totally want some of those trays for myself now!
I was not directly involved in this gift giving incident but it's my family so I can share....
One Christmas my father (in Massachusetts) opened a brand new electic razor from my grandmother (in Utah). He was a bit peplexed and when we made the 'Merry Christmas/Thank you' phone call to my grandparents, Dad thanked her for the gift but then asked if the big family picture was still hanging in the living room and would she go look at it? There was a moment of silence and a slow realization of the error as she looked at the photo and then responded "You have a beard." It has been a great family story for years!!
(In Gramma's defense, she only saw us once a year so it was an easy mistake to make.)
Haha, that made me laugh!
I am not a good gift giver and I always feel weird watching people open the presents I got for them. I would rather they open it when I'm not around!
You're so right about the ice that used to taste funny. I remember getting ice from your mom's fridge since I was engaged to James. I always thought it tasted bad. Then as I was reading the post I was thinking, "She doesn't need these anymore though. . . she has that nice fridge." and then I read the rest of the post. ha ha ha ha ha! That's too bad Em! I got a good laugh from it though.
We have a code word at our house, "Harry Connick Junior C.D." for any gift that is five years too late. I can't even tell you the rest of the story without incriminating someone in my family, but it has lived in infamy ever since. :)
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