Sentimental Sunday The Hero Loved a Gag at Christmas

When the Hero and I first married, my dad and he got into a contest to see who could out best the other in a gag gift.
The contest began with my dad painting a picture and framing it with a toilet seat.  I forget the exact phrasing of the "poem" on the outside of the box, but it was something to do with the difference between youngsters of today sitting with ease as opposed to old timers who knew hard times.  Wish I had kept the tag.  We did keep the picture and it graced our bathroom wall for a decade until it was destroyed in storage.
The next year, the Hero was ready... he came home one day with gray and brown color pigments from his stucco lab, a stack of newspapers, and a 3 ft by 3 ft box.  I watched as he carefully spread the papers in the bottom of the box, sprinkled the pigments on the layer, then repeated this to the middle of the box.  He then, put some paper, and in the middle of that a scented bar of soap.  Going back to repeating the process of paper and pigment layers to the top.  He carefully wrapped the box, put a bow on it, and proudly sat it behind the tree grinning.  I was wondering... hmmm how is this going to work?
Christmas morning came and the Hero couldn't stand it.  First thing that Santa brought out was a 3x3ft box for my mom and dad.  I sat back holding TexasBlu and watched hoping this was going to be okay.  My dad opened the box, and pulled back a some paper, oops his hands were turning brown, my mom had been pulling back paper too (stipulation on the card...they both had to open it.)  She looked at the Hero with a question in her eyes; he smiled and said there is a gift in the package.  They trudged through the mess to find the bar of soap.  My parents hooted.  He had created a need for a gift of a bar of soap.  After cleaning up, everyone was in a merry mood. 
The gags went on back and forth for years, but everyone agreed that the bar of soap was the most creative that had been done.  Yeah, he was one to like a good gag.

1972 First Gag gift.