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My wife is awesome; birthday hunt
Feb. 20th, 2014 12:16 pmSo, when I was a very small child, I loved the book The Secret Birthday Message by Eric Carle. And I insisted that my parents put together a "Birthday Hunt" for me. I believe the very first one involved shapes; I think it was something like they drew a shape, and I had to find something that was that shape, and that's where my present was, but that may be from the book only. I do remember that one of the very first ones was when I was just learning to read, so the clues were just things like "UNDER THE BED" written out, and I had to sound it out. When I got there, there would be a present, and another clue to the next present. So however many presents I got was how many steps the hunt had. As such, I tended to really like getting a bunch of one-dollar toys instead of something really big and fancy. In any case, "big, fancy toys" are what grandparents are for.
Later, the clues got more complex, until my parents felt it was too hard to come up with clues that were challenging for me; not everybody is a puzzle designer by nature. My baby sister took over for a while (okay, by "baby, I mean five years younger than I am; she's thirty-five now, and she took over writing the hunt when she was ten or eleven); I remember two of her clues in particular, one brilliant, one simply unfair enough to not really count as a clue.
The brilliant one was "ON THE BACK PORCH". I searched behind dollhouses, in books about architecture, all over the place.
The present was on the back porch. Never even occurred to me as a possibility.
The unfair one was "THREE MEN." It was behind a box of Rice Krispies. I mean, if the clue had been "THREE ELVES", okay, I would have thought of that as reasonable. But "THREE MEN"?
I didn't get birthday hunts EVERY year. But I like it when it does happen. Lis has come up with good clues, too. For instance, one she did was "It eats ivy." My parents thought that was grossly unfair, but I went directly to my Jewish ritual garment, because, to ME, that was obvious. What eats ivy, too? A kittel. (if you don't get the reference. If you don't get the other reference.)
Anyway, Lis threw together a very quick but fun one for me today. I just picked the car up from the shop, and she said, "I put a little square of paper on everything you need for a Babel fish. Find them." The only present involved was the mustache-shirt that Lis's mom made for me -- THANK YOU ABBY IT'S ADORABLE -- but the hunt included all the items.
Later, the clues got more complex, until my parents felt it was too hard to come up with clues that were challenging for me; not everybody is a puzzle designer by nature. My baby sister took over for a while (okay, by "baby, I mean five years younger than I am; she's thirty-five now, and she took over writing the hunt when she was ten or eleven); I remember two of her clues in particular, one brilliant, one simply unfair enough to not really count as a clue.
The brilliant one was "ON THE BACK PORCH". I searched behind dollhouses, in books about architecture, all over the place.
The present was on the back porch. Never even occurred to me as a possibility.
The unfair one was "THREE MEN." It was behind a box of Rice Krispies. I mean, if the clue had been "THREE ELVES", okay, I would have thought of that as reasonable. But "THREE MEN"?
I didn't get birthday hunts EVERY year. But I like it when it does happen. Lis has come up with good clues, too. For instance, one she did was "It eats ivy." My parents thought that was grossly unfair, but I went directly to my Jewish ritual garment, because, to ME, that was obvious. What eats ivy, too? A kittel. (if you don't get the reference. If you don't get the other reference.)
Anyway, Lis threw together a very quick but fun one for me today. I just picked the car up from the shop, and she said, "I put a little square of paper on everything you need for a Babel fish. Find them." The only present involved was the mustache-shirt that Lis's mom made for me -- THANK YOU ABBY IT'S ADORABLE -- but the hunt included all the items.