i have ever been fond of giving my parents toys

one year, i gave my mom legos for christmas.

my dad's name was oscar, so i've given him stuffed oscar the grouches. usually we made him have stuffed animals if he was in the hospital so he could tell the nurses his daughters wanted him to have them. then he'd have to explain his daughters were in their teens/twenties/thirties.

about 6 years ago, i bought my dad a sing and snore ernie for christmas. when he is on his back you press a button on his hand and he sings part of "twinkle, twinkle little star" and talks about being sleepy and snores. if you shift him to a sitting position, he shouts: "I FEEL GREAT!" after about 3 years, ernie (the doll, not my dog) started getting bored and spontaneously proclaiming how great he felt.

which made everyone start playing with him more. so sometimes, he'd hide under the covers and wait to be discovered. sometimes he'd give it away and shout "I FEEL GREAT!" before being found.

sometimes we'd dress him up.

here's ernie straight outta compton (he usually wears JNCOs too, but a lot of my dad's clothes were gone so I made do with just the hat)

here he is extolling the virtues of oral hygiene and proper moisturization (respectively):

and sometimes, when he'd get bored in the middle of the night and talk about how great he felt, my dad would have to punish him. by making him do a headstand. which really worked for middle of the night chattiness.

and here's a picture of some of the stuffed animals my dad received over the years (i couldn't find the others)