Saturday, November 8, 2008

Strange Christmas Present Request #1

Now that Halloween is officially over, the kids are completely focused on Christmas. Our kids can have some strange requests for Christmas. We've already gotten strange request #1. I say #1 because I fully anticipate more unusual and impossible-to-find gift items to be requested by any and all of the kids before Christmas. It's a given.

MiniMe wants a Venus Flytrap, as in the carnivorous plant. I don't know where to get one of these or how to take care of one. And if you're a regular reader of NativeMom, you know I can't keep anything but kids, dogs and an occasional guinea pig alive in this house. Plants are doomed. So I'm appealing to my fans ... er, I mean readers, to offer suggestions as to where to find a Venus Flytrap, what to feed it (gulp, don't even tell me I have to purchase crickets or flies) and how to keep one alive in Florida.

We've found some strange items on the kids' lists for "Santa" over the years. But last year was a relatively easy year with items I found after only frantically searching every store in town and shopping online for only an hour or two. It's a bad year when you can't find the requested item. But I think last year the award for unusual Christmas gift request went to Wondertwin's daughter. She wanted a unicycle. Wondertwin searched high and low . . .at bike shops, big box stores and toy stores before finally finding it online. And would you believe her 11-year-old daughter can actually ride this thing? It's amazing! And I thought I was cool at the age of 11 when I could stay atop my pogo stick for more than 15 minutes straight.
Ah, those were the days . . .

5 comments:

Caroline said...

I bought a pitcher plant for my kids at school at the local Lowe's in Rapid City , South Dakota. They had Venus flytraps too in their plant department. Do you have one in your neighborhood, might be worth a try.
My favorite locally owned greenhouse has an awesome house plant department, they usually have several kinds of carnivorous plants in stock. Business like that might help, and there is always eBay, one of my favorite orchids shipped from a seller on eBay.
Caroline in SD

Dani said...

My husband loves flytraps, they're the neatest! You can buy small live fruitflies in a container at Petsmart.

Anonymous said...

When my son was in elementary school he received a carnivorous plant 'kit' as a gift from a well-meaning relative (coupon to send away for the plant which arrived in the mail). I'm not sure what this says about my housekeeping, but the plant lived a good long life in his room.

Anonymous said...

Wow, so many good suggestions on Venus Flytraps! You people ROCK!! You may just be in charge of finding all my kids strange gift requests this year . . .

Anonymous said...

wwww.blackjungle.com

Thay have carniferous plants. A venus fly trap is about 6.99. They also sell food for it. It arrives in plant form. Smaller during the winter months. Also check on my favorite ebay or local garden shop. Sissy