The Questionable Gift

After grilling my 91-year old father for Christmas gift ideas, he caved and said he could use a new Norelco shaver to replace his older one. Shopping online, I found the model I wanted at newegg.com. It even came with a free nose/ear hair trimmer. I don’t know if my dad needs his nose hairs trimmed, and the idea of anyone putting a rotary trimmer in their nose makes my eyes water, but it was free!

 

(Warning, digression ahead: The hair trimmer reminds me of the Epilady. Have you ever tried it? It was promoted as a pain free way to replace shaving your legs. I foolishly fell for the hype and bought one. I did one swipe on my leg and yelled, “Ow, ow, OW!!” as it tore the hair out by the roots. Obviously invented by a man).

Back to the story: The package from Newegg arrived at my father’s apartment on December 16th. I told him he needed to wait until Christmas to open it. I knew him. I asked, “If I hadn’t told you to wait, you’d open it now, huh?” He paused a second, then said in a small voice, “Yes.”

When I talked to Dad on Christmas Eve morning, he informed me in no uncertain terms he was going to open my present that day. He knew what was in the package and wanted to use it on Christmas day.

Christmas morning I made my daily ten A.M. phone call. The conversation went something like this:

Dad: “Well, I opened your present yesterday.”
Me: “Oh, do you like it?”
Dad: “I don’t know what to do with it.”
Me: (Thinking he meant the nose hair trimmer), “What do you mean?”
Dad: “It’s a Nintendo game thing and I don’t know how to use it!”
Me: (Shocked) “A Nintendo?”

Dad: “Preet (one of his caregivers) was here and helped me open the box. She was excited and said her son wanted one of those, but they were very expensive. I told her maybe my daughter wanted me to use it to improve my mind. Is this what you wanted to give me?”
Me: “No! It was supposed to be a Norelco shaver!”

So I’m in the process of getting Newegg to correct the mis-shipment. But I can’t help but think that some young boy opened up his Christmas gift to find a Norelco shaver instead of a Nintendo DS, crying out, “What’s this?!”