Registering the Next Generation by Jenn McKinlay

Jenn McKinlay: It’s been a minute since I’ve attended a wedding. Life is like that. You tend to move in your generational circle and minus a few outliers, you get married about the same time as your friends and colleagues, then it’s on to family creation (if you choose to have one), and so begins kid’s birthday parties, graduations, and suddenly, there you are again, attending the weddings of the next generation.

 

My first wedding of the next Gen is my nephew's. How long has it been? Well, I was one of the last of my set to get married and this is my nephew at my wedding — um, where did the interim 23 YEARS go??? Ack!!!

 

Which brings me to the topic of my post, I was scanning the nephew and bride’s registry, which is very Gen Z (glass straws, 

I get the idea and I love you guys, but if you have babies, those have to go, I’m just sayin’). Now, I recently acquired my first Kitchen-Aid mixer, so I’m behind the curve on the trends in culinary appliances, clearly, but when I wandered off their registry (I picked out something super cool – not glass straws — don’t tell) and while out there I fell into the rabbit hole of what people are registering for which was also a "what the heck is that?" and "do I need one?" experience that is the reason why my next book will be late. 

 

So, here are some items that I pondered and marveled at and  thought I’d share just in case anyone else was out in the weeds like me on what’s trending in wedding gifts these days. 

1. Rub-Away

A stainless steel bar that rubs away the smell of onions and garlic and other stuff. I had no idea this existed. Seriously. And judging by the 18K reviews of positivity, it works. Huh. 

Of course depending upon the weight, one wonders if it might make a suitable weapon in a mystery...but I digress.

2. Collapsible Tea Kettle

Not gonna lie, I'm intrigued. It's rocking a 4.5 in the positive reviews but I'm thinking I can just commit to a regular sized kettle. They don't take up that much space.

3. GrillBot

I'm just going to go with a big old "Hell no!" on this. A robot to clean the grill,? Yeah, not before I get the housecleaning robot, thank you very much.

4. Corn Stripper (sounds pervy, doesn't it?)

They had me at these instructions: "Simply pushing a cob through the cornwheel with a twisting motion to remove all delicious kernels effortlessly so as to add the corns to any meal." Not sure if it was the word cornwheel or the adding of the corns to any meal, but go get my wallet!!!

5. The Cookie Dipper

Is this how we know that weed is legal almost everywhere now? 'Cause this certainly feels like the brainchild of someone with powerful munchies who didn't want to get their fingers all milky...just sayin'.

How about it, Reds and Readers, any weird gadgets or gizmos that you've stumbled across lately? 

For the record, none of these items were on the bride and groom's registry, I just got lost out there in registry land...LOL.