Christmas Merriment
Monday, December 20, 2010 at 6:00AM There are a lot of good reasons to have children. Off the top of my head . .
- They're cute.
- Having kids is a good way to get rid of any excess money you may have.
- Or sleep.
- Want to hone your laundry/cleaning skills? Have children!
- They're snuggly.
- You can learn lots of useful medical information through multiple trips to the ER and pediatrician.
- They say funny things.
- They make you feel all warm and happy inside. Or quite the opposite, but no one talks about that.
But for Rich and me, the #1 reason to have kids . . . They're fun to mess with.
I finally got around to shopping on Saturday and when I got home I banished all the children to the nether regions of our house so I could wrap. It's fun to wrap while they're home. It drives them crazy to know that just downstairs all their presents are lying out in the open and yet they can not see them.
The fun of that situation only lasts until the gifts are wrapped though so I decided to come up with a system to make my joy last for days and days.
I labeled them all in code.
As they've gotten older, they have become extremely proficient at guessing what is in the packages. I re-box anything that seems especially obvious on sight like books or video games but they've caught on to even that. It doesn't help that their lists have gotten very short and very specific so when they see their name on the gift wrap it's pretty easy to guess what might be inside.
Faith was the first one to the family room when I announced I was done wrapping. She just stared at me in disbelief and sputtered. Then she started in on the cajoling and wheedling and questions. When I wouldn't give, she got creative on me. Practically batting her eyelashes at me, she asked, "Mommy? Would you like me to write the code key down for you so you won't forget it?"
Don't you love it when your kids believe you to be a moron?
Faith ran off to tell her siblings of the travesty that was occurring. Reagan was no fun at all. She just shrugged if off and pointed out that they'd find out in a few days. But Hayden?
Hayden did not disappoint.
"But, but, but . . . shaking the presents to figure out what's inside is the fun part! How are we supposed to do that now?"
"Well, I guess you won't." I calmly replied - and then giggled to myself.
"Did you write it down? You have to write it down! What if you forget it? How will we know who they belong to??!"
"I won't forget. If I do, we'll just open them up and figure it out."
Hayden was now a man with a mission.
This is how I found him when I finished getting ready for church on Saturday night.
He had taken all the presents out from under the tree and spread them around to rearrange in a way that he thought made sense to try to crack the code.
I made him put them all back before he could start working on his deciphering skills. Question after question flew through air. I refused to answer anything except, "Did you use initials?"
That would be "no".
Again with the moron comment.
Obviously I can't reveal the code secrets here, but I can tell you that Hayden is making it way more complicated than it really is.
And I'm loving every minute of it.
Faith, Hayden, My Favorites, Parenting, Things They Say in Holiday
Reader Comments (25)
teehee : )
This is hilarious! All the way around. Oh, and I love your living room!
I need a code.
You've got your own Da Vinci Code going on here...
I hope you'll tell us all the code after Christmas, now I have my own guesses!
ahahahahahahaha! I love this! I wish I had more than 1 child so I could do this! :-)
I do this, too! Although I started when our girls were pretty little. It kept them from comparing sizes of gifts, shaking them, etc. Now I keep it up because it IS really fun to mess with them! They're really confused this year, because there are a couple of 'together' gifts, and that required the use of multiple codes!
Oh my. Hayden looks really grown up in that first picture of him...
I think I broke the code. :)
Ok so when you CAN reveal your code, please share. Because thats ingenious and I just gotta know!
I started the code thing several years back, but the torture factor only works for so long, after awhile they started cracking the code too easy. SOOOOO last year I only put three boxes under the tree. In the boxes were clues to the next box where the "real" gift was, along with another clue. It was a Christmas morning scavenger hunt. The boys were BESIDE themselves asking me where the rest of the gifts were the days before Christmas. The conversations I overheard between them were PRICELESS! I heard everything from "Well, you know it's been a hard year" to "Maybe she really is mad about all the wrestling in the living room" HA!!! To top it off, Christmas morning was a BLAST! Instead of rushing through the opening process, everyone had to slow down and help each other (the rule was you could not move on until everyone found that clue's gift) Even my teen got into it and had a good time.
Yes Virginia, there IS a Santa Claus, and he loves nothing more that messing with your precious head!!!
OMG, I love this. Aren't you the smart one? I love Hayden's obsession. At least you know what he is up to! LOL!!!
Thanks for this wonderfully wicked post! You are a rock star among moms!
Ardee-ann
Absolutely hilarious! I can't wait until I can start the present torture. Greatness!
I think I got it . . .don't forget to post the code when you are done.
There is nothing so fun as messing with the mind of a child! (Or better yet, a teen!) Can you re-use the code each year or do you have to come up with a new one?
Don't think it'll work on just my husband...but he's a terrible gift-shaker. How fun!
that is HILARIOUS. both olli and i find this very entertaining.
Ummm, this is both clever and hilarious. LOVE!
this is so funny! you are such a clever mom. i am seriously in awe.
Rich has informed me I wasn't thinking "Big enough." Now I really have to know what the key to the code is. . . .
Hopefully the solution doesn't involve tombs, papyrus, or reading latin. But if Tom Hanks was my guide, I think I could handle it.
Really funny! can't wait until mine are older.
I just love you for this (and I love your reasons at the top that are making me slightly less baby hungry - I said we'd wait five years and I'd like to stick to it!). Messing with kids is fun. I created a Christmas video for my niece (well someone created the script, I just sent it to her) and it has Santa talking and telling her she's been naughty and needs to control her temper if she wants toys for Christmas. She is smitten with it.
I am clueless as to what Kevin is getting me, he keeps sneaking off to do "things" that he won't give any hints on. He also declined when I offered to wrap any of my presents that might need wrapping. I wonder why? ;)