This week we’ll be giving our typing fingers (in Trevor’s case, his two pointers) a well-deserved break, but before stepping slowly away from the keyboard we simply have to hold the 2nd Annual “Gifts For Teachers” Laugh-a-thon.
You see, last year around this time we wrote a blog post asking for piano teachers to comment with stories about the most bizarre or hilarious gift they had ever received from a piano student. The submissions left us literally spraying eggnog from our nostrils (and I know the difference between literally and figuratively… so picture that).
Anyway, we love a good laugh, so we’re asking the same question again this Christmas! We want to know what is the most bizarre/hilarious Christmas gift you received from a piano student this year?
We’re going to take every submission we receive before 5pm PST tonight, share them with our family members who are coming for dinner, and ask them to vote for their two favourite submissions. The two highest “vote-getters” will each receive one digital product of their choosing from the Teach Piano Today store.
So go ahead… make us laugh! And after you do… have a fantastic Christmas and wonderful holiday with your families and loved ones!
Tomorrow (December 24, 2013) we will announce the winners on our facebook page and contact each via email.
I received a yoga mat this year. The comment was, “You look like a person who would do Yoga.” I decided to take that as a compliment. 🙂
A tennis ball. Not wrapped, no card, no reason. He just came in, said he wanted me to have something and handed me the tennis ball. I still have it sitting in my bookcase. I don’t know why I keep it, maybe it’s sentimental or something.
I teach a family of 4 ranging in ages from 5 to 13. They are all very talented and very cute! When they came in this week for their lessons, one of them was carrying a herd of “root deer”…they had taken a sixpack of root beer and added googly eyes, red pompoms for noses, brown pipe cleaners for antlers and red pipe cleaners with a bell on each one for the reins. So cute! I will email a picture to you:) Merry Christmas!
I received a paper finger Santa from a 5 year old. There were 5 fingers colored red and Santa’s head in the palm part of the hand. My student told me to bring it back next year so he could finish it with the body.
To all you regifters out there….had my recital on Thursday and got lots of lovely goodies from my families….the best one was a beautiful hand painted wine glass….it was in its original packaging and stuffed with red tissue….i unwrapped it (after everyone had left)….in the red tissue was a tiny little card for mrs ‘smith’….I am not mrs smith! Mrs smith is the person who gave me the gift (who is also a teacher)….doh…….
I also was given a regift…with a card for Mrs. Lewis! I am not Mrs. Lewis – LOL! So, the question then becomes…do I give Mrs. Lewis her card back? She might keep them for sentimental reasons, or she might just be embarrassed. What is the protocol here?
This year our schools had a Christmas Brunch instead of Christmas Party. One of the mom’s commented that she needed muffin tins — so I loaned her 3 of mine. Her daughter brought me 6 muffins. All 6 had been nibbled on. She told me that her cats had got on the kitchen counter and helped themselves to my muffins. She waited for me to try one so I pulled the paper away and broke it in half — asked her to join me. I only ate the bottom of my muffin but she ate all of her half.
My 6 year old student gave me his school teacher’s gift (not wrapped or anything, just ran in and handed it to me in the middle of his brother’s lesson} and refused to take it back when his mother asked! Of course I returned it after the lesson… but his poor mother!
My 37 Minute Gift
One of my favorite students handed me a bag stuffed with red tissue. I opened it up to find a lovely paper-weight of a Christmas church scene, complete with falling snow. She said it had music so I looked for a key to wind it and the key was missing. I still made a big fuss over it, shook it for snow and put it on the piano for her lesson. Her mother came, we told her about the missing key and she asked if I ever shopped at Target? I told her “no” so she took it back and said they were leaving for vacationing in Utah. All I can say is it was nice while it lasted!
This year I received a giant-size box of mailing labels. It will last me a lifetime. In fact there will be some left for my ‘estate’ when I die.
One of my students always gives the most creative gifts! Last year she gifted me a beautiful bracelet made out of piano strings. This year she gifted me “The Piano Cheese Board and Tool Set.” Hilariously awesome, yet extremely thoughtful considering the fact that I looovvvveeee cheese 🙂 Attached below is the link to a picture of the piano cheese board:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=469245433185401&set=a.444151339028144.1073741833.393905804052698&type=1&relevant_count=1
This year I received a “Jaw Harp” from 2 sisters I give lessons to. In itself, maybe it’s not THAT funny of a gift, well, it’s a little funny, but, the funnier part was reading the How-To steps and trying to play it in front of my husband. We cracked so hard and it sure made any stress of the season dissolve after that episode. Heh heh.
“cracked up”
From my five year old, ham of a student, I got a mug…..it said “hot stuff!”
I got a tower fan from one of my students. It was much appreciated, but definitely unique!
A young female student picked something very special for me, all by herself, from an assortment of items donated to her preschool. It was hard not to smile ear to ear when I opened up her tiny parcel and found a bottle of AFTER SHAVE. My most memorable gift ever!!! 🙂 ~ Noreen Wensley!
Smoked turkey leg! Delicious! Also I was given some bath and body worths soap and my student looked at me with this unsure look saying “I’m not sure what my mom is trying to say”
My student brought me 2 beautiful bracelets, they look like they’re from India. My student says, “They didn’t fit the other person we tried to give them to.” I don’t think they’ll fit me either, if I could get into them, I’d have to be double jointed to get them off!
I received a 20 lb. box of crab legs!
I’m pretty sure I’ve got this one in the bag!
My Student gave me a set of ornaments that she and her mom made.
Out of a vegetable
Yes, you read that right!
They took Okra from their garden, dehydrated it, and then painted it, and decorated them with Puffy paint.
They were actually rather cute!
I received two very touching gifts: 1. On the back of a postcard that was advertising the school I teach at, my student had written: “Merry Christmas, Ms. Grout.” She found it on the table after our recital and made it into a card to give to me….
2. A Dust plug! “. The thing that I made you is a dust plug. you plug it into the headphone jack on your IPad. It is ment for keeping dust out.” She added a chain to the little plastic dust plug and added a beautiful ribbon, a hand made Fimo piano and a hand felted heart!
I once received a small bag of lays Baked Potato Chips, along with a used orange pen (as my favorite color is orange), which didn’t really have much ink left, and a sweet note thanking me for being the best teacher in the world. I thought it was cute that my student found that pen in her house and thought of me. Now, the pen was clipped to the bag of chips. Only problem was that the bag had been opened and folded over and clipped with the pen. Had the chips been used as well? When Madison returned from the bathroom, she informed me that I needn’t worry.
“Thank you for the gift, Madi!”
“You’re welcome! Oh, and don’t worry, I didn’t eat any of the chips. The pen just wouldn’t clip to the bag because it was too full of air. So I had to open it and let the air out.”
A new beginning student of mine, age 7, handed me a small box, clearly a box for jewelry. It had the traditional “for Ms Bloch” Christmas label on the front. When I opened it up, there resting on the soft, fresh cotton rectangle was an eraser in the shape of a bat.
all I could do was tell him how wonderful the gift was and that I love erasers!
The most ironic gift of the year: a beautiful gift basket of imported Italian pastas and cookies from a mom who knows I have celiac disease and can’t eat gluten. I would chalk it up to her forgetting, but her daughter was diagnosed with gluten intolerance earlier this year and the mom sought my advice several times on eating gluten-free. My husband and daughter are enjoying the cookies and I added the pasta to the box of food I’m donating to the local food pantry.