Thursday, December 18, 2008

Christmas at my house Pt. 2

Continuing the theme of sharing my favorite decorations for Christmas, here is a picture of a Santa I have - he's my favorite. Again, not sure from where this came except it was given to me by my mother-in-law. I'm quite sure it's an empty decanter for wine based on the sticker at the top. But... I've never been able to find out where it opens. My only guess is that it must be under the sticker but I don't want to remove it. I want to leave it as is. I store my kitchen Santa in the cabinet above my microwave during the off season. He's one of the first things that appears directly after Thanksgiving.













I decided this year to put presents out early (the tree is not as full underneath as it appears - most everything is in the front). Normally I'm having a wrapping marathon on Christmas Eve after the kids have gone to bed and therefore the tree pretty much stays empty underneath. But not this year! My reason for waiting until the last minute is so I can do an inventory on what I've purchased and "how many" presents they both have - they are still at the counting stage. Somehow I got finished early enough to go ahead and give my children a little pleasure of enjoying presents under the tree. But, there was a problem. Someone couldn't stand the temptation and tore a hole in the paper of his presents:





Me: (hollerin' up the steps) HubbaDood! HubbaDette!
My2: Yes ma'am!
Me: (still hollerin') GET DOWN HERE!
Me: (with children standing in front of me while I hold up the damaged package) Who tore the hole in the package?
HubbaDette: (yellin' at top speed with eyes wide open with fear) Not ME!
HubbaDood: (shaking his hands in front of him with a look of "what am I gonna do now.") I did it.
Me: (to HubbaDette) get upstairs.
Me: (to HubbaDood with fury) What were you thinking?!


I quickly had to calm myself as I reflected back on a Christmas past when I and my two younger siblings found our Christmas presents and it was the year I got my patchwork rabbit fur coat - the hottest item ever for a teenage girl. I remember finding it in my mom's bedroom closet - I tried it on and pranced around the house with it. I made one big mistake though... I told some friends who in turn told my mother. I guess they were jealous - who knows. I thought my mom was going to kill us and ME especially. When Christmas came there was no rabbit fur coat under the tree. I was quite sad. But since my mom really wanted me to have it she brought the package out later that afternoon and let me open it. I so loved that coat - wish I had kept it just as a reminder of that Christmas.

On with the case of the torn wrapping paper. I decided to close my mouth and head to the coffee roasting room where HubbaHoney was busy roasting a batch of beans. I shut the door behind me so HubbaDood couldn't see or hear me talk to the boss man. All HubbaHoney could do was laugh and say "I did it too when I was young." Although I peeked at unwrapped gifts I NEVER tore the paper off! Oh well.

I really didn't want my son to have a horrible memory of me losing my cool and ruining Christmas just because he's nine and was struggling with "gift temptation." So, I taped the paper back and moved on. He has since told me that it hasn't bothered him anymore and I have to say it has been a great learning experience for him and a teaching tool for me to use when it comes to talking to him about controlling our desires to do things we don't need or shouldn't do.

P.S. I found out later he had torn a whole in every package that had his name on it. Luckily he didn't do enough to see what the gifts were.
I have been blessed with a wonderful husband and two beautiful children
Have a Merry Christmas!

4 comments:

Doozie said...

I did it too, but I was much more clever. I gently removed the tape and then put it back so no one ever knew. At least I thought they didn't. We only did it on the presents from our aunt though, because her gifts were always knitted stuff, which was SO not in style back then.

I remember once I peeked under my moms bed, and she had gotten me this awesome baking set, back then it was miniature pyrex colored bowls, and refridgerator dishes. I loved that so much. I think my sister gave it to some of her friends later, that always ticked me off, I wish i still had it, sorry for the rant, i'll shut up now

Foo said...

I must've been a very meek child. I never had the nerve to do more than pick up a package to measure its heft… and maybe shake it a bit.

I like your idea of posting pictures of your fave decorations. I'm not sure I have any favorites myself, but I'm always intrigued at the sorts of things the season inspires people to create for decoration.

WV: "zolot" Is that like a Zoloft zealot?

Fred said...

Mine are still in the counting phase. Heaven forbid of there's not an equal number of presents, no matter the cost of each one.

I hope you had a great Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year. :o)