Christmas Gift for the Granmas

Since Christmas is right around the corner, let me share the story of the 1998 Christmas gift for the grandmas.

You know how certain people, like your parents, always say, “Don’t get me anything for Christmas. I don’t need anything.” In the never ending search to get my mother and my mother-in-law the perfect gift, Himey and I came up with this great idea.

Sometime in September or October, we gave each of them an early Christmas present, a gift certificate for an all-expenses-paid trip to the House on the Rock, redeemable only on November 14.

I picked the mothers up at their homes and the kids up at school on Friday afternoon and we headed south. We stayed at the Cedarberry Inn in Sauk City that night, and let Nick and Val swim in the pool for a while before going to bed.

In the morning, after free continental breakfast, we drove to Spring Green to the famous House on the Rock. My mother had been there many times, even more times than I had, if that is possible. My mother-in-law, however, had never seen it before and was totally enchanted with the whole place.

As I’ve already shared in previous blogs, and as you already know if you have been there, the House on the Rock is so much more than that. The House itself is cool enough, but then there are these rambling buildings that take you through time and space, around the world and back with seemingly endless displays of toys, dolls, music machines, ships, even paperweights. It’s a huge crazy place; though filled with antiques, it is nothing like any museum you’ve been to.

So, for the person who has everything, it is just an idea. Or take them to the Mall of America, or a ballgame or maybe even just to a new park.