Thursday, December 20, 2007

Garbage mittens

Last year I gave my then 4 year old nephew a pair of denim blue felted alpaca mittens for Christmas. When he opened the present, he took one look at them, sort of shook them, said "Stupid garbage mittens!" threw them down, and stormed off. He was so mad!

My sister was mortified, and kept apologizing for her "ungrateful" son. No big deal, I knew that mittens are not what a four year old wants for Christmas, they want toys. More and more toys! I knew he needed the mittens, though.

A couple weeks later, my sister called. She had discovered the reason for the outburst.

She was doing laundry, and was emptying the lint trap of her dryer. Her son was standing there, and said, "See, that's garbage, right Mom?" She said, "Well, yes, we'll put the lint in the garbage. " He ran and got his mittens, and stood there comparing them to the lint she had pulled out. "See, garbage mittens."

The poor kid thought his aunt had given him mittens made out of garbage! They wear a lot of jeans, so their lint is usually the exact color of the mittens I had made. My sister explained to him that I had made the mittens out of fiber from the animals I have especially for him. "They're not garbage?" No, honey, not garbage. He got a big smile on his face, immediately put them on, and now wears them all the time, in the house and out.

I just might be giving him a "garbage" hat for Christmas this year.

8 comments:

Olga said...

One Christmas my MIL gave my daughter,who was about 4 at the time, a horse for a gift,and she took one look at it and threw it down and said, "It's just a stupid horse!" I laughed when I saw your nephew's comment, must be what all kids say at that age! Still mortified me though.

Anonymous said...

lmao! that is too funny :D it's funny, how they pick up on everything even when we think they are not listening, lololol.

cornbread hell said...

great story. hilarious. stupid garbage mittens!

Miss T said...

Great story!

Kim said...

Found you through Yarnival. What a great story. Garbage Mittens, indeed!

Grace said...

HA! Gotta love 'em. Cute story. =)

Rooie said...

Hee! I love it.

Reminds me of a friend's daughter who, one Christmas, pulled the wrappings off a box that had some sort of electronic puppy in it. Her parents, expecting her to be thrilled, were saying things like, "Oh, a puppy! You can take him for walks! What will you name him?" And their daughter was practically bouncing off the walls as they opened the box for her...and when it was out she took one look and wailed "It's not a real puppy! It's a fake puppy!" And wouldn't have a thing to do with it.

TheBlackSheep said...

Oh dear! At least he's happy with them in the end - and you found out why he reacted like he did!

Good story!