A "Sweet" Father's Day

Dad's never fit any of the stereotypes. I learned this while trying to find him an appropriate Father's Day card for the first, well, nearly every. single. holiday, where it'd be fitting to get him something meant just. for
or. him.

The closest I could ever find would be something like "gardener" or a "baker", a dad who'd be handy in the kitchen, & anything referring to a dad being as such was never really marketed. I did find him a stick-in-the-ground placard reading "Dad's Garden" one year. I remember this because he's kindly kept the item right alongside the front flower bed aligning with the hedges as one approaches the front door & mailbox, simply by glancing a bit to the left, they can notice it.

Stereotypes typically aimed dad's to be beer guzzling, television watching, junkies; fishing gurus; golf (or any sport) playing; & automobile obsessed to name a few. Dad was none of these. He didn't follow these profiles. He wasn't a workaholic either. He just was. And that was enough. Then how to acknowledge this in an annual greeting card, or get him an ideal gift? It typically ended up way too complicated & most years I sweated the situation.

This year initially was no different. In fact, the idea for Dad's gift this year sort of fell into my lap - not literally though 😂! It's been for years now that I've mixed up a batch of these (though I most often grab for the generic) & brought it along as a "snack" or a "just or fun" idea. Dad's raved about it since Day One. At this point, any time I might see Dad, I make sure to bring along a batch. It' become My Thing. Don't worry, the stops aren't all that frequent, though there is a therapeutic quality to mixing up each batch, prepping, & baking it. And box mixes have been a rather reasonable cost.

Having two thirds a cup of oil & a quarter cup of water handy as well as two eggs & one of these (this size is fundamental for just the right brownie thickness), greased, as well as one of these & these, though, for Dad, in this throw away form, has become second nature. The treat has also become a quick house warming gift (yes, in place of a potentially unsuitable bottle of wine), or just something fun with which to surprise, well, anyone.

I happened upon a bunch of discount coupons for a particular store. They were really good discounts, so I kind of really wanted to make sure to use them. Isn't that the way we've all been trained to think? 😂 I found myself in the snack section & there they were, individual bags of these & these.

I picked up enough to fill the coupons I had with me & stowed them away. After all, what became this "project" began months ago. Soon after I ended up with another set of coupons. Again, I lined up  these bags for purchase. I did enough times that I realized I had about half the bags needed for a clever project. I could get Dad enough of these bags to have a bag to represent each year he's been a father. And I did it. I kept collecting the highest discount coupons & got a cardboard box to adequately stow in a safe corner. It took a few months &, when I finally counted them up I had enough bags between these two available flavors, to label each with a sticker marked to acknowledge a year of Dad's fatherhood including one for the year when Mom was pregnant & one to grow on.

Of course, I prepared a pan of brownies for him too. He thought the idea was brilliant, so did Mom. Very thoughtful, original, & creative. With all of the little events & activities Dad participates in, these bags could make for good "take along" snacks. Summertime concerts in the grass, volunteering at church, any random seniors activity, an afternoon spent at any of the places where he does his beloved genealogy research, etc. With each bag labeled with a year, he could literally count back the years of his fatherhood until he finished his gift.

No, there's never been a stereotypical Father's Day item or selection geared toward guy's obsessed with genealogy & taking long walks, yet, somehow I manage each year to find something that will be useful to him, something for him to enjoy.

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