She tried to pass it off to me and I declined. The two of them were discussing whether there were any parties they could take the food to when I said, "why don't we give it to a homeless person?" They both agreed it was an excellent idea. "Great, I'll get a zipper bag to put it all in."
They looked at me as though I'd sprouted another arm.
"You can't do that."
"That's tacky.
"You can't give someone a gift in a zipper bag."
"But. They're homeless."
"So? That doesn't matter.
"It's Christmas."
"OK. So, how am I supposed to hand someone this giant box through the car window?" And how are they going to carry the box around?"
That stumped them a bit. We went around some more with me still in favor of simplicity and they in favor of gift wrapping.
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| Coffee mug added for scale |
"Well, when you put it that way..."
We finally settled on putting all of the food in zipper bags and then using one of the gift bags Mom had in her stash (also something she didn't want).
We put the gift bag in the car and headed out for last minute shopping at Target. On the way there, all the homeless people we saw were on the opposite side of the street. But, when we were leaving, there was a man standing right in the median.
I started to hand the bag to my mom and she shook her head slightly.
"No, not him."
"Why not? He's not homeless enough for you?"
I couldn't believe we were going to end up bringing the food back home after all the fuss. But, mom remembered she needed something for a recipe and while I ran into the grocery store, she and Gramma drove across to the other parking lot and found someone who met their (obviously) very strict Homelessness Guidelines and gave the food to him.
Next time, I think I'll just take the re-gift and handle things my way.
