Every year... well, let me start over. Ahm. Since Mike and I have been married (6 1/2 years now), I have taken pride in the fact that I have all of the Christmas shopping done by or immediately after Thanksgiving. I decided to do this our first Christmas as a married couple so that I could relax and enjoy the new found traditions that incorporated two families into one wonderful season. And I didn't want anything to mess that time up - like running around the mall at the 11th hour looking for the latest gizmo for that very special family member or friend.
Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho! Eeek! This Christmas has not been so graceful! I came home with the great idea of giving each of the boys three Christmas gifts each this year. Jesus received three gifts, so we are working on aligning to focus a little more on the Christmas story. Especially since the 5 year-old has the GIMMES bad, oh so bad!
Three gifts - should be pretty easy right? Wrong. They each will receive a gift from Santa, and then two from Daddy and Mommy. The Santa gifts have been easy and non-stressful. I have had them for weeks upon weeks now. Andrew will be receiving a bright and shiny red Schwin bicycle (yes, with TWO wheels - a very special request to Santa this year!) and Ryan will be peddling around in a bright red fire engine (like the old metal ones).
For their second gift, I bought each of them a backpack and had their names embroidered on them with "Iowa Hawkeyes" down each of the shoulder straps. I have lots of books, new crayons and markers, a movie and some games to place inside of each. Great idea, right? Well, it certainly would be if I could find the backpacks! I forgot that they were in the car when I went to pick up the boys. Andrew almost saw them when we were getting in the car. I threw them quickly in the very back. We got home, I opened up the back and...here's were it gets foggy... I remember placing them up high on some of the boxes I have begun to pack if we do ever officially move. But now I can't find them if my life depended on it. And thank goodness it doesn't...because then the song would go "Mom got ran over by the reindeer..." and not grandma!
The third gift we had a hard time settling on. I thought it might be a nice idea to get them something bigger that they both could share. We finally decided to get them a trampoline with the enclosure. I spent hours, yes HOURS, yesterday looking for a trampoline! Toys R Us supposedly had them for $100 off. Of course they sold the last one two hours before I showed up to look there! I spent over an hour with the very nice and friendly guest services employee calling all over the metro area and even into another state to find one. All hope was gone - alas! there was not another Toys R Us within 200 miles that had a trampoline. There are going to be many happy, bouncing (literally) kids on Christmas morning this year. At the last weak attempt to not have to go back to square one to come up with one more gift, I stopped in at Academy Sports and Outdoors on a whim. A small Christmas miracle! They had two left!!! I looked like a circus clown juggling everything in my car to make the boxes fit into my small SUV, but I was not about to leave the golden trampoline behind.
We too will have speed racing, backpack finding, bouncing kids on Christmas morning!
Now...if only I could find those backpacks! I need my own Santa's helper to keep up with my brain!
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