Returning The Favor - Part 2

I know some of you might be tuning in to find out what I sent to GunDiva in return for her bequeathing Crazy Kisses to me. I did, in fact, promise to post something today about that very subject. Unfortunately, GunDiva has not cooperated with my evil plan (yes, I do have one). She has confirmed receipt of the package, but she says she won't open it until she finishes grading some papers. Curses! Foiled again. So, some of you might have to wait a little longer than you expected (Jennifer, remember what I said in the comments about teaching you patience?).

You see, I love surprises. In particular, I love being the one to give surprises. It gives me no end of amusement to scare the living daylights out of my mother in law by sneaking up behind her and whispering "boo" in her ear. Just yesterday, I demonstrated this to great affect on the teenage daughter of a friend of ours who was here helping The Queen and I by cooking a whole mess of food. After telling the young lass what I do to my mother in law, I lurked outside the guest bathroom door when she went in for necessary business. When she came out, I jumped out and gave her a good scare. She squealed in fright, and her mother (who witnessed the stalking), The Queen (who was also witness) and I laughed hysterically.

I also enjoy employing the element of surprise in gift giving which, in the Erickson family, is an art form. One year, my sister and I chipped in to get mom a new VCR (back in the day when a 3 head VHS was the pinnacle of high tech and we were but poor high school and college students). Knowing that mother would not leave well enough alone in trying to figure out what was in the box, we devised a devious plan to thwart her efforts. The VCR box went into a much larger box that was weighted down with about 60 pounds worth of barbell weights. Needless to say, mom was clueless until she opened the box.

Sometimes the fun is in the hints. My sister and I have tormented mother on more than one occassion with subtle and not so subtle hints. One incident in particular comes to mind. My sister called me one day out of the blue and said "Guess what?". I said "You're pregnant." Of course I was right. I'm very good at guessing games. We proceeded to plot against mom. We came up with the idea to give her a little box with a stuffed rabbit inside holding some little fake lillies. Unfortunately, this hint backfired on us. Mom was puzzled by the receipt of a small box with a toy bunny holding flowers in it (she is a big fan of bunnies). It took my very astute grandmother to pointedly tell her "The rabbit DIED!" I suppose it is possible to be TOO subtle. Oh well. We had a great laugh despite the hint failure. If The Queen and I are ever blessed with a child, I will build a full blown pine coffin for the stuffed rabbit so there will be no confusion.

As you might have guessed by now, there is a surprise lurking in the package I sent to GunDiva. I promise it will be a pleasant surprise for the GunDiva, and it is not ticking or otherwise capable of bodily injury. However, I want to hear GunDiva's report of her reaction to the surprise before spoiling it here.

It shouldn't be long. I promise. Nothing encourages people to open gifts faster than to tell them there is something "special" inside.