I made a huge rookie mistake and I offer this quick reminder as a warning to all parents:
Only 4 days left don’t screw up!
After my wife spent the past several weeks purchasing numerous gifts for my two youngest children to be given by Santa, I had successfully been storing them in the back of the mini van in an unmarked cardboard box. Rushing out the door on the way to school the other day, in order to make room for an extra stroller, I hastily transferred the box from the mini van to the garage.
Unfortunately, out of sight equaled out of mind.
This past Saturday evening, as the family gathered for a festive evening of tree trimming, I asked my son to run to the garage and grab an extra extension cord from the Christmas decoration box. As inquisitive 6 year olds are want to do, he proceeded to open and look in every cardboard box in the garage, thus discovering his sister and brother’s Santa toys.
All is not lost as we can still give the presents to the little ones, they just can’t be from Santa. Because of my bone headed hiding job, I will be the one to venture forth and buy the new Santa gifts. Out into that crazed torrent of last minute shoppers I go.
Haste makes waste.
I’m not sure where we are exactly in the believing in Santa deal, but my wife is taking a pretty casual approach to the whole thing. She ordered everything online and just let the brown boxes pile up in her office (where my kids do their homework after school most days). She thinks they won’t notice. Hm.