Christmas Shopping

Earlier today I was at Target shopping for my daughter’s gift. She was on the cell with me telling me which set of pots and pans she wants. Not the 12 piece set of T-fal, she wants the 10 piece set because it comes with three pans, not one. No, not the grey one. She wants a set of red. The problem is that the red, as far as I can see, comes in only the 12 piece, not the 10 piece. I even read the list of which pieces come in each set. We didn’t find what she wants and so far, we are holding out for the one she wants but if it gets closer and we don’t find it, she might have to settle for the grey ones.

I thought it was pretty silly to have her on the cell, basically picking out what she wants but at least that way she won’t be disappointed and I won’t feel horrible because I got the wrong set. Then as I was leaving the parking lot, I remembered another era in which the kids picked their own presents!

When my kids were little it was really difficult to go Christmas shopping and even more difficult to go Christmas shopping for their presents. I had them with me round the clock and I didn’t have anyone to watch them so I could go shop. I had to resort to trickery to do their shopping.

My kids have lots and lots of cousins, most of which are in their age range. Many years ago, we used to exchange gifts with all of them. So I would go shopping with my kids and they would end up getting to pick out their own presents! We would be at Toys R Us and I would get a toy I thought one of them would like and ask their opinion as to whether one of their cousins would like it or not. They would go into detail about why or why not it was a good choice for their cousin. We would decide and we would go pay. What they did not know until Christmas day, was that they were actually picking out what they were going to get.

It worked for about three or four years then they got too old to deceive like that! At that point, I would have to wait until their dad could watch them after work. This only worked closer to the holiday when the stores, including Toys R Us, were open until midnight.

We still laugh at the days when they actually got to pick their own presents!