This is kind of long but I hope it’s a story you’ll agree is worth reading! 
I’m looking for creative ideas to really wow my brother with a gift of a new laptop computer. Now, I love my brother, naturally, but there are more reasons why I’d really like to make this special and fun. Here’s a little background.
Ten years ago my brother dropped out of college when he got married – with only 9 credit hours to go on his degree! I couldn’t believe it at the time; it was only a semester! But, it’s his life and his decision and I knew that I probably didn’t have all the details. But anyway, he was well on the way to his career and until very recently his lack of that little piece of paper hasn’t hurt him professionally at all. (He’s in hotel management.)
So recently he came to realize if he wanted to move up in his company he better go back and get that little piece of paper. He still lives in the same city as his university, so last summer he just toddled back there, met with his advisor, found out what was needed, and enrolled. He graduates May 11. Hurray!
Now, as part of going back to school he OF COURSE had to purchase a laptop computer. He needed it, yes, and it was an excellent excuse to acquire one. So yay Mark, now he’s got a spiffy new laptop and with his degree he’s all set.
Well, disaster struck in early April. Here in Kentucky (and a lot of places in the South) we experienced extremely warm weather in late March. Temps in the 80s. Flowers bloomed. It was glorious!
Then … a cold front moved in, bringing very cold temperatures on the heels of a hideous, tremendous thunderstorm. On this fateful day, lightning struck my brother’s condo development, igniting a fire which raced through the buildings, destroying everything! He literally lost everything he had except the shorts and t-shirt he was wearing, and his cell phone. He had a few CDs in the car, I think, and a few tools in the trunk but THAT’S IT. He became, as he told me a day later, an instant minimalist. He answered his phone when I called him at Target, where he was buying a phone charger and some sweat pants!
So naturally, I want to help, help, help him all I can. I have a lot of household goods I can give him when he’s ready to move into a new place (my second marriage and combining of households left me awash in washers and dryers and dishwashers and microwaves and end tables and food processors and …).
So my Big Idea is to replace his laptop with a really nice new laptop. He lost his desktop computer, of course, in the fire [by the way NOBODY was hurt, they weren’t even home and the only deaths in our family were the aquarium fish] so I’d like this new laptop to be “the” computer. Nicer than the one he lost and enough power to carry him through at least a couple years.
The fact of his graduation (yay!) is a nice excuse to do this. My mother, two sisters and brother and I are all going to go in together and buy it. We just decided, after some deliberation, to do this THIS MORNING. I am deeply afraid that the computer won’t arrive by next Friday, in order to present it to him on Saturday at his graduation.
But … not such a big deal, right? This presents a marvelous creative opportunity to really surprise and wow him! My initial thought was just to wrap a box and put a picture or something inside, but we can do better than that!
I happen to have access to a lot of old computer parts (though I don’t think there’s any dead laptops down there). Help me think of some way to use either packing boxes, or computer parts, or something to wrap it all up and slowly reveal to him that he’s getting a brand-new spiffy laptop, and not a junky old computer (which would be fun if he thought that for a minute…)
So any ideas? He’s a good sport and would appreciate creativity. I want to show him how much we, his family, care and want to help and support him through this time! Help me knock his socks off and show him how much we love him.