Sunday, December 23, 2007

Happy Day

Today is Joseph Smith's 202nd birthday. Happy Birthday to the man who shaped my faith in Jesus Christ and gave his life for his faith. One day I hope to thank him for his leading role in the restoration of the gospel.

Also, today I am posting my 100th post. Time flies when you're having fun! I sure have enjoyed this new adventure and feel so much more connected to family and friends.

Today is also a banner day because I am playing the piano for the primary kids during sacrament meeting. I have never, ever done this before and am starting to get nervous. I have practiced to a fault and if I flub up it is because I am nervous. But I have learned that through practice and prayer the Lord sustains me. I am looking forward to the peace that a prayer will bring while I am playing.

On a grim note: My children discovered their Christmas present from Santa. We got the first hint when Mackson left a note for Santa attached to the Christmas tree that said, "Santa, would you please be sure to leave some batteries for the RC car I am getting? Enjoy the cookies. Love, Mackson." That kid is bold. So after talking with Harold about what to do in this situation and whether or not they had actually seen the stash.....after prayer and scriptures the other night I say, "Who here knows what they are getting for Christmas?" I said this in a very snide voice, so they knew I knew. At this point Sav was already pouting on the couch about us making her go to bed at 10 p.m. on a non-school night. She points her toe at her brother and says it's his fault. Then Mack proceeds to blame Harold. (When we had had a particularly rough day getting the kids to cooperate last week Harold threatened to take back the gifts and proceeded to go down into the basement to fetch the presents. This gave away the secret location and Mack then gave Sav the info and they both checked it out.)

I asked them how it felt to know their presents in advance and if they were happy with themselves for ruining their own surprise and also ruining some of the fun for their mother and father. They were crying and wailing, blaming anyone but themselves. Harold started laughing and they cried harder, which made him laugh more. It was hysterical.

We debated about whether to take the presents back and get something different...but ultimately I couldn't be bothered. I am going to set those dang presents out on Christmas Eve while they are sitting there and will make sure they know my disappointment, hopefully this will teach them never to snoop again.

I snooped once when I was about 12 and found out a few gifts I was getting and it made for a horrible Christmas, I never snooped again. I hope my children learn their lesson this year. I sure have learned mine, I will be stowing gifts at my friend's houses instead of my own.

3 comments:

Brittany said...

sav told me about the discovery of their gifts when i was IM'ing with her the other day. she blamed mack for finding the presents....i told her that she didn't have to look and that he didn't make her look but she didn't want to take the blame. i know it stinks that you won't have that joy of seeing their surprised excitement when they open their presents christmas morning - but it sure makes for a great story! i laughed pretty hard when i read mackson's letter to santa. and even though they already know what their gifts are - they will still be excited to have them. and that should be fun too.

merry christmas!

Anonymous said...

Funny. I used to snoop. I still do sometimes. I'm good at faking surprise.

Jules said...

That's too bad. Holley was the classic snoop at our house but I love surprises and never wanted to know. One time my mom hid all our gifts from Santa under a blanket and someone lifted the blanket up revealing the contents. My mom covered and told us that Santa dropped them off early because with so many more kids in the world he had to get an earlier start. We believed her and noone got hurt. I really hope you have a nice Christmas even though there are some surprises gone.