Dear Amy and Sean,

Thank you for the "lovely" gift you gave my family for Christmas. The ornament you left us is lovely, but is not something that will be treasured for years to come. Its charms were instantly noticed, yet not appreciated, but not nearly as annoying as you hoped.I agree that anonymous giving is the truest form of giving, but this year you are busted. Although I am sure that this gift was given with the kindest intentions, unfortunately, it does not go with my Christmas decor and is available for pick-up at your convenience.

Love,
Laura and the boys

Earlier this month, Amy and Sean dropped by for a visit after Sean's work party. After they left, I noticed a cricket chirping sound coming from the entry/living room area of the house. The chirp was soon followed by a "watch beep" sound. I noticed another odd sound as well. I assumed that Nolan had set a timer on his iPod and that it was chirping/beeping to remind him that he was done with something. I called him upstairs and asked him to shut off his iPod. It wasn't his iPod timer. As I pondered the beeps and chirps (it chirped at the :07 and :37 minutes based on the clock on my computer), I remembered seeing a product online that emitted chirps and beeps. A quick Google search found a lovely, small, green item from ThinkGeek that emitted those sounds. Since Sean had just come from his techy work party, I assumed he'd been given one and had passed the gift on to us. According to ThinkGeek's website, the batteries in the device last for approximately one month. I decided that it wasn't irritating enough to hunt for the device and that we would ignore it until the battery died. The next day, Nolan was practicing the piano and told me that the beeps were coming from the Christmas tree in the living room. Since the item I thought I was looking for was small and green, I reconfirmed my decision to not hunt for it in a large-ish green tree. A lightbulb went off in my head and I went back on ThinkGeek to see if they had a Christmas version of the device. I immediately found that they sold the item pictured above imbedded with the chirping device. Knowing what I was looking for, it took me about 15 seconds to find the above item in the Christmas tree and remove it. Now I had to decide what to do with the ornament. I decided to let it sit on my kitchen counter and not mention it to Amy and Sean. Many days later, Amy called to see if she could stop in again. She was coming over to help me wrap Christmas presents. I took the ornament and put in back in the tree, but made it look like it had fallen off the branch and on to a lower branch (it only chirps when it is hanging). Not long after Amy arrived, I heard the chirping again and saw Amy smirking as she heard the chirps. I acted like I didn't hear a thing. After she left, I removed the ornament from the tree again. Amy came over one more time before Christmas and I had to hang the "chirper" back up, hoping that my lack of acknowledgment of the chirps was bothering her! Well, yesterday Amy stopped in and I showed her the lovely gift she left us and retold the saga of the "on the tree and off the tree" ornament. Evidently, Amy and Sean thought that perhaps we had hearing loss. Amy has agreed to take the ornament back so she can pass it on to some other unsuspecting person next year.