Not the Intended Use, but Better than Tiny Tacos

My brothers, SILs and I threw my parents a combo 40th anniversary/retirement party a couple of weekends ago. If you're familiar with my style of party planning, I like to torture myself with the EXACT RIGHT details and when I agreed to my brother's taco-truck-dude-as-the-main-food idea, I immediately started agonizing over how we could possibly do tacos + polished and classy.

But then it came to me!

We were already planning a red and orange color scheme and I could country it up a bit by using red gingham linens and renting jelly jars instead of glasses and then instead of the taco guy's regular plates, I could get those red and white checkered nacho-ish paper boats and VIOLA, I'd have an adorable way of making casual, chic.

I'll share more about all of that later, but I wanted to tell you about how I looked on eBay for those paper boats and once I figured out what they were called, I found a handful of listings. Some of the options were blue, some were in boxes of 5,000, some were $20 with $30 shipping, blah blah blah. I love a good theme as much as the next girl, but I didn't want to be so obsessive that I lost touch with what was reasonable.

BUT WHAT IS THIS??? 1,000 for $20 and $5 shipping??

SOLD!

And then they arrived and they were teeny small. Like the size of a computer mouse. I didn't want my guests to feel like they could only eat ONE taco, so these just would not do. I gave them to my dad, who I was sure would find a million uses for them that did not involve serving people one taco at a time.

Fast forward a week or so and my dad forwarded me an email thread from a lady with an organization called Reptile Rescue and Rehoming. It appeared that he'd put the tiny trays on Craigslist and the thread was about how a lady named Paulina was going to come and get them, great, he'd put them on the porch, and then she got them and yay, Paulina had her trays and my dad had the garage space back.

It took me a minute or three to realize that there were attachments to that email:

I must admit that I'm not a reptile fan, but I sort of feel warmth toward these particular reptiles and I love that the tiny paper trays found a good home and that the reptiles appear to be enjoying their new dishes.

I double love that Pauline thought to send the pictures and triple love that my dad knew I'd appreciate them and I don't at all regret that purchase. (Even though I ended up finding the appropriately sized paper trays at the restaurant supply store for $10.)