Twice

For our little family we chose to stick with the Santa idea for Christmas. Not everyone does that now-a-days, I know. A loved one in my family chose not to do Santa. Its a personal choice. Whatever sits well on your stomach, I think. Anyway, I know that the idea of Santa is coming to a close for my six-year-old, as kids seem to mature sooner and sooner and I know some stinkin' kid is gonna rat me out about Santa any day now. :-) SO, I need this Christmas to be fantastic for her. It may be the last year that its as magical as when you believe. You know...

About a month ago her prized gift from Santa was thrown into the storage room as we quickly left to run another errand. And I forgot about it until the next morning when she walked into the house with it in her hands, wondering what it was for...I cried. Burst into tears right there in front of her. And I told her that it was her Christmas gift from her dad and I and to put it back, she wasn't going to get it until Christmas. I was devastated because since dear hubby is out of work going on nine months now, gifts are going to be slim pickin's around here and that gift was the one special "Santa" gift: the good one. After that episode, all gifts purchased went down to my in-law's house for safe keeping. (They live right behind us, so its a quick walk down to their house.)

Fast forward to Thanksgiving. Since it was our first holiday without mom-in-law and only a week after we buried her...Thanksgiving was weird at best. And I didn't pay any mind to the fact that Rachel had gone down to spend time with Paw-Paw. She was getting under foot anyway and it was nice to have one less child to think about while I was power cleaning and baking. So Thanksgiving is over, I actually go out shopping on Black Friday and finish my Christmas shopping for the girls. And once again, take them down to my in-law's house for safe keeping. And as I'm lugging in the bags, my dad-in-law mentions that Rachel had been spending a lot of quiet time the day before in the back bedroom. You mean the bedroom where the rest of her Christmas gifts have been hiding? Oh yes, that room. And I look at him like he's got three eyeballs and ask if he stopped her from looking at anything. "Well, no. I don't think I did." Really....

So I go home with a sinking feeling in my stomach and ask Rachel. She went through EVERY SINGLE BAG. EVERY ONE OF THEM. I cried. Again. Right there in front of her. How can this happen twice?!?!? TWICE!?!?! Probably the last year I have to work my Santa magic and she is going to get crap from Santa because she's seen all the good stuff! So I called my dad-in-law after I wiped up my tears and told him I was coming for the gifts. And I packed them in diaper boxes and any other plain looking box I could find, stacked them up on top of each other and hid them away in the garage. And had a firm talk with Rachel about how she was ruining her Christmas if she kept snooping around. She cried. And apologized. I'm not sure at six she has a firm grasp of how devastating all this is, but let me just tell you...its about ruined Christmas for me.

Until...and I know this is random, but its what you get for rainy Monday...dear hubby and I went to see Jon Reep this weekend. You know the guy who is in the dodge commercials acting all crazy and says, "That thing got a hemmi?" You know, that guy? He won the Last Comic Standing a couple years ago and he's been on a couple sitcoms. He's stinkin' hilarious and what's more, his humor is clean. On the front of the program Saturday night it said, "Adult Content" on it so I was a bit worried, but it was fairly clean and pleasantly without a bunch of cursing. I think one can be so much funnier when not cursing. And he was. Jon, I mean. So we had really good seats and at the end of the show they performed his newest song for us called Metro Jethro. VERY FUNNY. And the professional cameras rolled out. And they taped him and his band - the "Grim Reepers" (get it?). And as we are all cheering and giving him a standing ovation at the end, he tells us to sit back down, they are going to do the song again, only this time they are going to tape the crowd for his new music video. I'm sorry, what? We're going to be in his music video? Apparently. Did I mention that we had really good seats? Like 6th row from the front in the center. I could have sneezed on the camera guy he was so close. So guess what? Dear hubby and I are in Jon Reep's new music video! When it actually shows up on You-Tube or something I'll let you know. Maybe this is how I'll become famous....

So my night of laughter with dear hubby and the fact that I'll be recognized city-wide on a new music video saved me from having to be depressed the rest of the holiday season over snooping children and no surprise gifts. Hallelujah for laughter.