My humor sometimes is sick! I attended a funeral this week of a dear man whose daughter and son-in-law are long time friends of ours. While sitting in the funeral, I found myself smiling uncontrollably as I reflected on a practical joke I had played on his daughter over fifteen years ago. It is my greatest of all time.
A group of forty or more young adults were attending a Sunday School Christmas Party at her house. She and her husband were our teachers. It was my first visit to her house and I was amazed to find her house was decorated in COWS! Really, cows were every where! Porcelain cows, plastic cows, pictures of cows, cow dishes, cow cups, even a cow shower curtain!
Not long after the party had begun, discussion was stirring about what the class had bought the teaching couple for Christmas. Then it hit me, we should have bought them cow stuff. Knowing it was too late to go find any at a store, I realized something: she had so much COW STUFF, we could probably take things from her house, wrap them up, and she would never know! So as the party went on, an accomplice and I went room to room taking cow stuff, placed them in wrapping tissue, and put all in a large gift bag.
The time came to open the gifts. There were the usual gift cards, books, etc. Then last, the huge gift bag that we had filled. The husband reached in and took out the first item, unwrapped it carefully and exclaimed "look honey, they bought us a Cow Coffee Cup". Then he reached for another, "look honey a Cow Coffee Creamer......a cow light switch.....a cow plate and saucer....".
With each gift the husband was excited but the wife was looking puzzled. One time she whispered to him "we have one of those". By now the whole class is ready to bust but somehow held it together.
He reached for another item and pulled out something that apparently either she had made or had personal markings on, because as soon as it was unwrapped she said "that's mine". He argued back "no honey, it's a gift" and they whispered back and forth things like "smile, these are gifts" and "that's mine, I know that's mine". Saving the best item for last, finally he unwrapped the huge and cumbersome Cow Shower Curtain. She stood up, said I know that's mine, and the whole house busted a gut laughing!
I'm sure I'll be repaid for that mischief someday, but whatever comes, it was worth it!
