Top Two Christmas Presents

Jaelyn brought me a present that had been quite vigorously wrapped by her. LOTS of paper. LOTS of tape, oodles of folds and crinkles.

"What is it?" I ask.

"A firefly cat..." she blurts....

"No, not yet..." I protest....

She covers her mouth. Trying to hold in the joy... "I wrapped it all myself!"

I unwrap. It's an old jar of Vodka Sauce -- with bits of the vodka sauce still pooling inside (just before Gia Russa discontinued their line we bought a hundred jars....well maybe not a hundred...).

From two weeks before when she had wrapped it and placed it under the Christmas Tree.

I'm glad that I had gotten a hint beforehand that I needed to say: "A firefly catcher! I love catching Fireflies!"

And of course I'll be keeping it for use in June.

.

And my brother David, along with niece Emma & nephew Liam got me the perfect gift.

No really. They got me an automated Keyfinder. And I lose my keys all the time. ALL the time.

(Just ask the Security Guards at the college, I'm best friends with all of them.)

So with the automatic keyfinder, you just whistle and then the keys go off like a car alarm from wherever they are -- under a pillow, in a pocket, in the refrigerator.

Two problems:

I didn't learn to whistle til I was 21.

So I still can't whistle, apparently with the right tone to make the key alarm go off, but

The Good News:

Jaelyn shouting at her brother DOES set the alarm off.

Changing the channel on the television DOES set the alarm off.

Addison's shrieks whenever he's teased by Jaelyn...Does it.

My cell phone ringing...yep.

AND to top it all off:

Anytime the kids accidentally set it off (or another appliance tries to send out a mating call to it), they're thrilled with the whole concept.

So they start to approximate whistling noises. Which are just the highest pitched shrieks you ever heard. Like a whale call with none of the subtle quiet beauty.