During my senior year of high school my uncle was going through a divorce and for probably the first time ever he was solely responsible for holiday shopping. Suffice it to say we got some very, um, unique gifts that year. Among mine was an M&M dispenser, which I find hilarious for many reasons not the least of which being that I’m quite known for my lackluster feelings towards sweets. That isn’t to say I don’t like M&M’s, but personally I prefer the ones with peanuts or almonds and they don’t work in the dispensers.

Well, from that spawned somewhat of a tradition and without fail every year since I’ve gotten a new dispenser. Mostly they come from my father, but there have been a few random ones from other friends, too. At this point the shelf space they take up literally rivals my book collection and that is really saying something. Especially since I’ve never once acquired one on my own! Anyway, when last I was at my father’s, Keith had packed up a bunch of stuff of mine he’d come across while cleaning and lo was there not this here dispenser among them:

Yes, it’s out of the box because back then they were novel enough that we had to test them out. This one was the first action/animated/whatever one I ever received. Some of them, like this one, are pretty clever with how they work. Some of them have lights and make sounds and do all sorts of interesting things. But what they all have in common is that they aren’t really useful to store M&M’s in. (This one dumps them in that tiny popcorn bucket and even with small hands I find it a challenge to dig them out.) So, now that it’s formally back in my possession I set about cleaning it up as best I could and making a space for it to sit on my shelf.

Oh, and if you’re wondering, my dad has that first dispenser my uncle gave me. And, unlike the collection lining the shelves at my house, it’s actually being used to hold M&M’s!

EDIT: Unrelated, but worth mentioning, my blog is currently being eaten alive by spam. I’ve caught two legit comments that got thrown in the spam queue, but as there is such a huge influx of actual spam I can’t guarantee I’ll catch every one. So, my sincerest apologies if your comment gets lost; it is by no means personal. However, it would be awesome if you would email me if you think you got spammified, so I can whitelist you!