that's how we do.

we successfully surprised my dad for Christmas.

my parents have had this tv for too many years:



and me and my sisters and grandparents combined forces and got him this 42" flat screen of awesomeness:



my mom knew about it ahead of time, because we needed some help hiding it in the house and all that. but my dad had no idea. it was great.

it was my sister laura's idea to do it. my dad does a lot for our family. he works really hard, and makes a lot of sacrifices for us. and he doesn't ever really do anything for himself, especially when it comes to buying stuff he "doesn't need." i'm kind of the same way. one of the parents at school gave me a gift card to target, and i'm totally planning on using it to buy...groceries. anyway, that's how my dad is. and the tv they have been using is really lame-o.

in fact, the only reason they even had one "that good" is because my grandparents bought themselves a new tv several years ago, and gave us their old one. before we had it, we had an even smaller tv that had some of those super cool rabbit ears hooked to the back. i vaguely remember having to position it in just the right spot to watch certain channels.

so we knew he'd never get a new tv.

and i got it on video. yay.

what's funny is that right before he opened the tv, my mom had given him a new coffee maker. and he was whining about how she didn't need to do that because his was "just fine" or something. he's not an ungrateful person. he just doesn't deal well with change, or spending money on things you don't need. and i am exactly the same.

anyway.

so that had happened right before this moment i captured on video.

all the presents had been opened, but there was one large box left. it was the tv stand for the new tv. so he was like "what about that? who is that for?" and my mom said "well that goes with something else they got you. they have to go upstairs and get it."

also, a few gifts had been wrapped in random boxes. my mom kept having to say "ignore the box, that's not what's inside..."

i make a really awesome joke that won't make sense without that information, ok.

note: my sisters have not mastered the "vacant, emotionless stare" as well as i have. the giggling is theirs.