It's the thought that counts

Popi (as my children refer to my father) has always had a way with gift giving during Christmas time. In years past, while still living in the Atchley home, he would concoct and carry out elaborate scavenger hunts, puzzles, and tricks while presenting his children with gifts. These puzzles ranged from the esoteric clue that led to an obscure passage in a familiar book, to literally hacking into his lightly secured linux server in order to retrieve a command list and open a file containing another clue. Every Christmas you would find Dad scheming, plotting, writing, and setting up these elaborate hunts.

This year he couldn't control the venue, and at 29 years old my preferences for gifts are either too expensive, or so specific as to be almost impossible to locate without 2 overseas contacts and a divining rod ("Yes, I would like you to get me the German HDMI stripper sold through a grey market front on ebay." "I've always wanted magnetic throwing stars.")

I ask for cash. Cash is boring. People think cash is so boring that they're more likely to give you a gift card that you'll never use. Cash feels impersonal and lazy. Popi, made it not lazy. I unwrapped my present only to find a Godiva chocolate box. In my family, it is well known that boxes are often reused. Instead of keeping any individual item in it's original box, we've found it far more fun to change the box, so items are harder to guess. While we're in the box we're also likely to throw other random goods to provide either insulation from shaking, or something jingly so that shaking the box is the most innacurate way of figuring out what you've gotten. So I open the Godiva Chocolate box and am greeted by a $50 bill on a stack of other bills. "AHA. You think you've tricked me old man, I'll not be fooled by a $50 on a stack of $1 bills." I looked closer. Wrapped around the $50 and the other bills is what appears to be a small paper tie that reads, "$5000, Viewpoint bank."

Wat?

I closed the Godiva box in a moment of thought, realizing that even this was fake. I also realized that is was a very good fake. Upon closer inspection it was in fact a $50 on a stack of $1 bills. The fake paper tie took Popi over an hour to make. Through trial and error and by using the paper tie on the stack of $1 bills, he had mimicked to the best of his ability what a $5000 paper tie might look like.

Good job. You got me.