Wednesday, November 21, 2012

A Funny Christmas Memory

For Christmas 1983 we traveled from Idaho to Southern California to spend the holiday with our folks.  Our 3 children were all attacked by chicken pox that month.   The lengthy16 hour drive was not the most pleasant we ever made.

Not long after we arrived at my folks' house, my Dad (George), with a shopping bag in his hand, cornered Craig out in the yard.   He pulled out a red box, the container for a TI-5015 adding machine, and asked Craig "the engineer's" opinion of this clever little device.  Dad meant it as a Christmas gift for my Mom (Jean).  Craig expressed his opinion which was that it seemed like a useful quality gift that my Mom would enjoy.  Dad went away satisfied.

Later that same day, when Dad was out doing chores, my Mom cornered Craig in the kitchen with a shopping bag in hand.  She pulled out a red box containing a TI-5015 adding machine, and asked Craig's opinion on this handy new device.  She intended it as a Christmas gift for my Dad.   Craig did his best to keep a straight face as he gave her the same opinion: it was a useful good quality gift my Dad would enjoy.

He reported the incidents to me and we cracked up.  Needless to say, we were ready with our camera Christmas morning to catch this hilarious photo of my folks:


Don't you just love the look on each of their faces?   Dad is trying not to laugh out loud and betray the secret that he thinks only he knows..  Mom obviously suspected what was in her box.  And she was right.

3 comments:

  1. It's like your very own version of The Gift of the Magi.

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  2. I love that they both went to Craig about how perfect this would be for the other...and he was able to keep a straight face! :)

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