Need more ideas (cleaver way to give gift to DH)

[DawnM]

Ok, so I got my DH a new grill that he has been talking about for about 8 years but won't buy for himself.  It is from all of us (my son suggested it).

We are really excited to give it.  We got it into the neighbor's garage on Friday.  

I am going to take a lump of charcoal and wrap it under the tree from Santa (🎅 with a "You were naughty" this year type of card)

Any creative ideas for actually leading him to the neighbor's garage to get it?  It weighs 200 pounds so I won't be bringing it over by myself, my plan is to get DH to go over there with the boys and get it on Christmas Day.  

 

Thanks!

[DawnM]

By the way, as I was at the check out, I got two proposals for marriage if I would give such great gifts as that to them every year! 😂😁😂  It was quite funny.  

[matrips]

Can you do a scavenger type hunt?  Like we’ve done at kids birthday parties.  Put clues (notes from santa) inside your husbands and kids stockings.  Have them work together to find the next clue and so forth until they are at the garage. Then he might not know whether the gift is for him or one of your boys.

[DawnM]

Maybe.  The kids all know what the gift is and where it is, so the clues would only be for him.

[Scarlett]

3 hours ago, DawnM said:

By the way, as I was at the check out, I got two proposals for marriage if I would give such great gifts as that to them every year! 😂😁😂  It was quite funny.  

Link please 

[DawnM]

6 minutes ago, Scarlett said:

Link please 

 

Link to what?  The grill?  

https://www.kamadojoe.com/

 

Edited December 16, 2019 by DawnM

[TheReader]

Short of a scavenger hunt....hmm. 

You could do a scavenger hunt for just him, &/or add small items that are grill themed to help him figure it out. A spatula, a grill cleaning brush, some of those cedar grilling planks, a grill cover, the owners manual wrapped up.....stuff like that. 

If you want more just a ruse to get him to the neighbor's, could you get the neighbor to save a package box that they receive, and you wrap something in it, and then when it doesn't make sense, ask to see the box and discover the neighbor's name/address on the box and be so embarrassed that you kept and wrapped it that you send your DH to return it, since the neighbor will of course be wondering why this weird item never arrived. 

Neighbor says, when they get there, "Oh, thank you! Don't worry, the same thing happened, we got your item....here, I put it in the garage, you want to come get it...?" 

And now the weird thing makes sense when he sees the real item/gift. 

The odd gift could be maybe a meat thermometer to use while grilling, or any of the things above. You could give it to him either before or after the coal item, whichever way delays him figuring out the surprise. 

[gardenmom5]

a treasure hunt?  going from one place to another for clues?

[Scarlett]

35 minutes ago, DawnM said:

 

Link to what?  The grill?  

https://www.kamadojoe.com/

 

That is so nice!  I love it.  

[happi duck]

I love treasure hunts!  However, if you'd rather not do that...

Do you have a bag of their special charcoal that says the brand name?  You could have a large box with a smaller box on top.  Small box has a lump of coal and a note that says "you've been naughty?" or similar.  The large box has the special charcoal and a note that says "Nah, you've been nice!" or similar.  Then you either tell him the rest of his gift is in neighbor's garage or have that info stuck to the bag.

or just a small box with a lump of coal.  Under the lump of coal is a little card.  Outside says "you've been naughty?" and inside says " nah, you've been nice! " with a picture of the grill.

have fun!

[katilac]

As an easy option, Michael's sells a line of miniatures called Tiny Treasures. Buy a grill, box it, wrap it, done. 

They only cost a few dollars. 

[DawnM]

Well, I did find this T-shirt I could wrap up:

 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/635050864/funny-big-green-egg-bbq-t-shirt-meat?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=kamado+joe&ref=sr_gallery-1-46&frs=1&col=1

 

😲😲😲

[school17777]

Would it seem odd if the neighbor’s asked your dh to come over to help move a gift for them, your dh not knowing it’s really his?  They could call the day before to ask for dh’s “help” on Christmas at a set time so dh goes over there thinking he’s helping them.

[DawnM]

1 hour ago, school17777 said:

Would it seem odd if the neighbor’s asked your dh to come over to help move a gift for them, your dh not knowing it’s really his?  They could call the day before to ask for dh’s “help” on Christmas at a set time so dh goes over there thinking he’s helping them.

 

It might.  We just moved in this past summer.   They were the selling realtor for this house though so we did get to know them first.  There is one other neighbor down the street we knew somewhat from church before we moved in.   But we are new.

But maybe if I said, "Hey, Bill says he needs help with something, can you go over there and help" it would work.  

I was trying to tie it into the actual gift through, with him opening up the coal.

 

[school17777]

1 hour ago, DawnM said:

 

It might.  We just moved in this past summer.   They were the selling realtor for this house though so we did get to know them first.  There is one other neighbor down the street we knew somewhat from church before we moved in.   But we are new.

But maybe if I said, "Hey, Bill says he needs help with something, can you go over there and help" it would work.  

I was trying to tie it into the actual gift through, with him opening up the coal.

 

I’d still give him the coal and other grilling stuff, but to get him over there, I’d have the neighbor request his help “real quick” so your dh doesn’t suspect anything when he goes over.

[TheReader]

3 hours ago, DawnM said:

 

It might.  We just moved in this past summer.   They were the selling realtor for this house though so we did get to know them first.  There is one other neighbor down the street we knew somewhat from church before we moved in.   But we are new.

But maybe if I said, "Hey, Bill says he needs help with something, can you go over there and help" it would work.  

I was trying to tie it into the actual gift through, with him opening up the coal.

 

Did you see my suggestion up thread?  to wrap the coal in a shipping box received by your neighbor (or even if you can fabricate a mailing label with their name/address for a shipping box of your own)? So he opens the gift, you act confused, check the label, see it's intended for the neighbor, and that's the ruse to get him over there -- to return the gift to it's rightful owner, and check if they also received (and kept) yours by mistake. 

 

[school17777]

Was wondering how you ended up giving the gift to your dh, especially since you ended up going out of town for your mother’s funeral?

[DawnM]

12 hours ago, school17777 said:

Was wondering how you ended up giving the gift to your dh, especially since you ended up going out of town for your mother’s funeral?

 

It didn't go as I had wanted.  We got in at 2:30am on Christmas morning from the internment out of town.  No one got up until almost 10am.  We gave some gifts (we didn't even get all of our shopping done) around 11.  My youngest wrapped up some coal and we put "To Dad, From Santa" on the outside.  He didn't get the reference.  He cracked a joke about cooking the turkey with the 5 pieces of coal.  Then we gave him the accessories.  Then we told him to go to the neighbor's garage for his gift.  The neighbor had WRAPPED it!  So nice of her.  I think it was because I had posted on FB that I had wrapped nothing. 😏  But I hadn't even intended to wrap that particular gift.  

He loved it.  He said that was exactly what he wanted.  And he didn't suspect a thing.

Edited December 27, 2019 by DawnM