Pansy Day Celebration 2009

Note: "Pansy Day" is the unofficial name given to our anniversary by Blogmaid. It came about when she would watch (and help) me scour the Internet for pansy-based gift ideas for Mrs Notthat. Wednesday was our 26th anniversary!

Pansy Day is a big deal at our house. All of us are involved - the kids, grandkids, and IDT*.


The grandkids moved all the presents from our bedroom to a pile in the middle of the living room. It was pretty awesome. The big pink one was Darci's, and she had the hardest time waiting for the "go" signal. She had been begging for days to get to open it.


Finally she was able to go for it. Even Riley was keen to see what it was. (It was an Ariel comforter. Apparently she likes the Little Mermaid. Ryan hopes she doesn't decide she needs a waterbed.)


We all patiently take turns, opening one gift at a time. It's not always easy to stand by and wait. There is a tradition of trying to fool the recipient by adding something heavy, like a rock, to a box with a shirt, or a package of screws to give it an odd rattle. We've gotten pretty good at detecting some of these, but there were a few new tricks this year.

(I don't have pictures of these, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some - WHM* and NCN* took lots of pictures and hopefully they captured some of these moments.)

For example, I opened my box from The Boy only to see a pair of Darci's shoes. After removing the shoes there was a note, pointing out that he had just got me. (There was a Kansas Jayhawks t-shirt in the bottom.)

I opened a box from WHM to find some book about how guys should learn to knit along with a half-done knitted cap. My look was priceless (I've been told) and WHM took the box from me and said she was going to finish it herself.

Mrs Notthat opened a box that had a pair of my shoes on top. There were a number of the "multiple gifts in a main gift" gags.


There was an amazing mess when it was all done. We had to carefully sort through this stuff to make sure nothing accidentally got thrown out.

I got many cool things - a new flip-down LCD TV for the kitchen, an angle grinder, an odd two-sided puzzle that has the cover of the Beatles White album on one side and pictures of each side of the two albums on the other (this could be challenging), many books that I can't wait to dig into, and these things.


A hand knitted Jayhawks hat, the Jayhawks t-shirt, and a talking Tim the Enchanter plush toy that's such an odd and thrilling thing.

We finished the evening with take-out Chinese food and some very tired grandkids (and grandparents). Everyone left happy.

And yes, there were some pansies involved - WHM made bars of soap with pansy flowers in them. Whew!

That's it - move along...

*IDT is Idiot Dog Teddy who got a rawhide bone stuffed with peanut butter.
*WHM is Dani, the Weird Haired Mom.
*NCN is Ryan, who Needs a Cool Name.