I took my kids to the $1 store yesterday to pick out a toy for our 25 Days of Christmas. (so far the only one I haven't done on the day the event was read from the Advent calendar)
.
Conversation at the register:
Me: "Kids, go look at those...um...scarves over there."
Ryan: "I don't need a scarf."
Me (teeth gritted) : "Just go, please."
Ryan and Kaylin trotted off to the slightly tacky $1 scarves along the wall.
Me (whispering to the cashier) : "Could you please ring these up discretely?"
Cashier (weak smile - grabbed the items and piled them high after ringing them up)
Me (whispering again) : "These are a surprise for my kids...could you please put them directly into the bag? Dis-crete-ly?"
Ryan (running over to me): "Mommy, are we done yet?"
Me: "Oh, um...please go back over there for just a second."
Ryan (turned around) : *sigh*
The cashier finally caught on and threw all of the items in a bag.
.
I didn't want to go back to the store to buy the specific Hot Wheels race car Ryan showed me that he wanted from Santa. I hid it (and some other stocking stuffers) under Jason's receiving blanket in his car seat. I was sly. I was stealth. I didn't get arrested for appearing to shoplift. I made it out of the store with the stocking stuffers undetected. The cashier managed to NOT ruin the surprise. I snuck the bag into the house. After the kids were asleep, I pulled the items from the bag to hide with the other Christmas gifts in my craft room closet.
.
Then it happened.
.
Conversation this morning:
Ryan: "Mommy, what's this car doing here?"
Me: "What car? Where?"
Ryan: "On the kitchen table." (shows me the Hot Wheels race car of his Christmas dreams)
Me: stunned silence
Ryan: "Did SANTA COME LAST NIGHT?!?!"
Me: "Uh, hmmm...maybe he did. But, um, I wonder why he wouldn't have left it under the tree?"
Ryan: "Good point. Did you buy it at the store yesterday when I showed it to you?"
Caught.
Me: "I did - I went ahead and bought it just in case Santa forgot. Sorry I ruined the surprise by leaving it on the table."
Ryan (huge smile) : "Can I have it?"
Me: "No, I'd better take it back to the store since I ruined the surprise. Hopefully Santa will bring you one."
Ryan: "Can I play with the Spiderman cards?"
At this point, I thought I'd only accidentally left the car downstairs. It didn't take me long to realize ALL OF THE STOCKING STUFFERS were left out on the kitchen table.
Me: "No - it's all going back. I'll get you something different."
.
What an idiot. I could use some of my pre-pregnancy brain cells back.
.
Conversation at the register:
Me: "Kids, go look at those...um...scarves over there."
Ryan: "I don't need a scarf."
Me (teeth gritted) : "Just go, please."
Ryan and Kaylin trotted off to the slightly tacky $1 scarves along the wall.
Me (whispering to the cashier) : "Could you please ring these up discretely?"
Cashier (weak smile - grabbed the items and piled them high after ringing them up)
Me (whispering again) : "These are a surprise for my kids...could you please put them directly into the bag? Dis-crete-ly?"
Ryan (running over to me): "Mommy, are we done yet?"
Me: "Oh, um...please go back over there for just a second."
Ryan (turned around) : *sigh*
The cashier finally caught on and threw all of the items in a bag.
.
I didn't want to go back to the store to buy the specific Hot Wheels race car Ryan showed me that he wanted from Santa. I hid it (and some other stocking stuffers) under Jason's receiving blanket in his car seat. I was sly. I was stealth. I didn't get arrested for appearing to shoplift. I made it out of the store with the stocking stuffers undetected. The cashier managed to NOT ruin the surprise. I snuck the bag into the house. After the kids were asleep, I pulled the items from the bag to hide with the other Christmas gifts in my craft room closet.
.
Then it happened.
.
Conversation this morning:
Ryan: "Mommy, what's this car doing here?"
Me: "What car? Where?"
Ryan: "On the kitchen table." (shows me the Hot Wheels race car of his Christmas dreams)
Me: stunned silence
Ryan: "Did SANTA COME LAST NIGHT?!?!"
Me: "Uh, hmmm...maybe he did. But, um, I wonder why he wouldn't have left it under the tree?"
Ryan: "Good point. Did you buy it at the store yesterday when I showed it to you?"
Caught.
Me: "I did - I went ahead and bought it just in case Santa forgot. Sorry I ruined the surprise by leaving it on the table."
Ryan (huge smile) : "Can I have it?"
Me: "No, I'd better take it back to the store since I ruined the surprise. Hopefully Santa will bring you one."
Ryan: "Can I play with the Spiderman cards?"
At this point, I thought I'd only accidentally left the car downstairs. It didn't take me long to realize ALL OF THE STOCKING STUFFERS were left out on the kitchen table.
Me: "No - it's all going back. I'll get you something different."
.
What an idiot. I could use some of my pre-pregnancy brain cells back.
Posts
4 comments:
Oh, bless your heart! Just hang in there. We have all done something similar at some point.
It happens to the best of us. Here's my story.... Unintentionally, my husband and I ruined my eldest daughter believing in Santa. We had bought a computer for our 2 eldest children for Christmas that year and it was going to be their big gift from Santa. My hubby just stacked the boxes in the back of the garage and insisted that our kiddos wouldn't notice a few extra boxes in the garage. Ummm, yep, he was so so wrong! Years later, she told us, that was the moment that she knew for sure that there was no Santa. She said she didn't want to spoil it for the other 3 kids, so she never said anything. Poor girl! Here we thought she still believed! I felt so terrible! Just about as bad as when our 9 year old asked us the other day if Santa was really real and he wanted the TRUTH. Nothing but the honest truth. Needless to say, we all sat down, eldest daughter included, and told him that there is indeed 'Santa's Spirit of Giving', but no REAL man that is Santa. He cried. Hard. Then our eldest daughter told him her story about the boxes, the computer, and when her dreams were crushed. He seemed better. So hubby told him that there is no Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy. *sigh* Poor kid. Seriously. It happens to us all!
I thought I was super sneaky a couple of years back when we had a storage unit...our house was on the market earlier in the year so we just hung on to the storage through the holidays until we could deal with it.
Well...smart little me decided to hide the gifts at the storage unit and there would be no chance any of the dumplings would see them. I wrapped things discretely and brought them home a few at a time and stashed them in a locked closet.
Finally...the day before Christmas we had to get to storage before they were closed (locked property) and I brought my teenager with me to collect the bike, the tinker toys, the other larger boxes we had gotten at Costco...as we rolled up the big metal door...right there in plain view was the stupid skateboard that he was told that there was no way we could afford...dang it.
Big gift ruined. And no time to spare to go change things around or cover or tracks...he was stuck...knowing his Christmas present.
****But it gets better....
I just found out this year that when I wasn't looking, he liked to rifle through my purse and read the receipts to see what gifts had been purchased. He knew all about the skateboard, the Ipod, the everything....for at least the last couple of years!!
JERK! :)
At least you can still sneak one by the kids these days...enjoy the wonder and magic of it all...as well as the lying. It won't be a facade that you need to keep up for long! HAHAHAHA
Merry Christmas Girl!
Can you imagine if they'd accused you of shoplifting? That is just a funny mental picture!
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