gift - part one

As our children were growing up we tried to impress upon them that choosing a gift for someone is fun but also requires thought and should be something the recipient wants or needs. We also tried to step back and really let them choose the gifts they were giving. This led to some rather... um... interesting gifts over the years.

One Christmas our youngest daughter, who was six at the time, was very excited about her gift to me. For weeks she told me it would be my favorite gift of all time. My husband, who had taken her shopping, just smiled and nodded his head. I must admit I was very curious and couldn't wait to open her gift.

Imagine my surprise when I opened this...

She saw it advertised on television and just knew it would solve my dinner dilemma when I forgot to defrost something and we "had to" order take-out. According to the commercial, as well as the box it came in, Miracle Thaw "miraculously" defrosts frozen food in "minutes." 

I thanked her for the thoughtful gift and gave my husband "the look" that said we'd talk about it later. Actually, we laughed about it because my ruse to order take-out was now over.

I admit, I was skeptical. But I didn't want to hurt my daughter's feelings so I tried it. I put four frozen chicken breasts, flat side down as the directions said, on the Miracle Thaw and waited. Imagine my surprise when it worked! Okay, it certainly wasn't "miraculous" - there was no divine intervention and I'm quite certain there is a scientific reason for why it works - but in only 70 minutes, all four chicken breasts were completely thawed. Thinking it must be fluke or something, I tried it again... and again. And twenty years later, I am still using it. 

Sometimes we don't know what we need... but someone else might!