At some point in the fall of 2017, Pat stated she wished she could walk in the house after work and have NPR playing without the hassle of turning on the radio and dialing it up.
I read that a Google Mini could do that. I ordered one and tried it out. Worked like a charm: "OK Google, play NPR." Like magic.
Now, how to wrap it...
Somehow, I had to get Pat to say that phrase. I designed a rebus and sent it in to make a 204 piece puzzle, put the unassembled puzzle under the tree (without the box) and hid the Google Mini behind a door in the living room. It was one of the easier gifts to make, just took time for things to arrive.
When it came time to open the gift, Pat had to assemble the puzzle, which is mostly red orange with white illustrations. It was a group effort. When enough pieces were in place, the natural thing to do is to solve the rebus. It took a couple of tries to figure out the words with some coaching from Pete, but when Pat said "OK Google play NPR" right on cue, the Mini launched the station stream and we were listening to Public Radio.
Magic.
