Sunday, January 2, 2011

Christmas Wonders....I Mean Mistakes

I was driving my oldest son to his friend's house.  I asked him what he wanted to do with his friend.

"I can't wait to tell him all about my Christmas!"  my son exclaimed.

"That's great, honey," I agreed enthusiastically, "I'm sure he'd love to hear all about everything you did."

This was so nice.  He could tell his friend all about the happy Christmas memories he had from our family events.  I wonder what he would tell him first.  There were so many fun things to choose from!

"Are you going to tell him about how we drove to a farm and cut down our very own real Christmas tree?" 

My son shook his head.

"Are you going to tell him about the gingerbread house we decorated, or about how we baked your favourite ginger cookies?" 

Again my son shook his head.

"Hmmm.  Are you going to tell him about the outdoor skating and the sledding I arranged with your friends and how I brought hot chocolate with marshmallows in a big thermos for everyone?"

"Nope!"  My son answered.

"Okay, okay, I know.  This must be it.  You're going to tell him about our big Christmas party that we had, right, that was so fun, and we did Christmas crafts and decorated cookies?"  I asked hopefully.

"No, that's not it, Mom!"  my son said happily.

"Well, it will definitely be about the great gifts you got from Daddy and I and Santa, then, and how you got practically everything you wanted on your list except a DS even though I have told you and told you that you are not getting a DS because you have a Leapster!" 

I was sure that settled it. 

But no, again my son was shaking his head.  "I'm going to tell them, Mom, about how you wrapped a gift and put my name on it instead of Ryan's by accident, so I opened it and it wasn't really a gift for me at all!"

Ohhhhh - THAT happy Christmas memory. 

I had been wrapping the gifts and then got distracted for some reason.  I can't remember what is was.  Probably someone started screaming because they fell down, or someone probably punched someone else and they were crying, or the buzzer on the oven rang, or - you know, something really trivial! 

My hands tightened somewhat on the steering wheel. 

"Anything else?"  I asked cautiously.

"Yes!"  my son answered excitedly.  "I want to tell him how you bought me a Lego pack that I ALREADY OWNED!"

Ah, yes.  I suppose I should have known that, but I was so busy....

"AND," my son continued, "I have to tell him how you COMPLETELY FORGOT to give all of us this one big gift and so we didn't get it until TWO DAYS AFTER CHRISTMAS!"

"Right, yes, well - that's ... great, honey.  Really....great.  I'm so glad you have all these positive happy memories!  That's fabulous!"

Kids really keep you humble, don't they?

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