My mom has always been one of those people who like to snoop under the Christmas tree. In fact, she still does it to this day.
When she was younger, she was really hoping she would get a pair of cowboy boots for Christmas one year. Because her dad knew how bad she was with shaking the gifts, he figured he would fix her! He filled a tomato juice can with gravel and put it down into the shaft of the boot, adding quite a bit of weight to the footwear. When she saw her gift under the tree, she carefully inspected the size of the box, determined that a pair of boots could easily fit inside. However, the weight of the box told a different story.
On Christmas morning, she was eager to open the mysterious box and was surprised by the gravel filled can inside and her dad with a smirk on his face.
Fast forward many years later. My mom was bugging my dad that she wanted a pair of Muck boots so she could go out to the barnyard with boots that were easy to take on and off. So, when a box showed up under the tree that was about the size of a boot box, she got all excited. Well, she went to pick up that box to give it a shake. The weight of the box was too much for her to handle. She looked at my dad, bewildered, saying “Oh my God! These suckers are heavy. There is no way I will be able to walk in these!”
Dad just smirked and helped her put the box back under the tree until Dec. 25, with mom worried about how she was going to manage if they were the boots.
Again, on Christmas morning she eager to open the mystery gift. She found her beloved Muck boots, with a PTO shaft stuck in one of them. He had managed to pull the same prank on her as her dad did years ago.