Last evening I took all the kids to Toys-R-Us to do some Christmas shopping. Xander was quick to point out that the name should be "Toys are We," and we decided that even if you have poor grammar, you can still get rich selling toys, which is not a very good way to promote college.
Well, helping four kiddies shop for each other WHILE the others are present can be tricky, so I brought along several dark green reusable shopping bags. These green bags have become really popular lately- everyone seems to have them. Anyhow, the idea was that as each child chose items for siblings' gifts, they could keep them hidden inside the "don't peek" bags until we got to the registers.
Each of them had already done some holiday shopping at the thrift store, so I think they appreciated the difference in price when visiting a big shiny toy chain. The boys were a little reluctant to spend a whopping lot of cash on gifts, so I agreed that if they plunked down $5 of hard-earned allowance toward each sibling gift, I'd cover the rest. Zoe had a hard time even grasping the concept of imagining what someone else might like to receive as a gift. She continually whined about not being able to buy gifts for herself. Hm. We'll have to keep working on that!
Well, things were going well until I needed to use the bathroom (browsing takes a really long time, you know.) While I was occupied, Zoe climbed into the cart and peeked in one of the "don't peek" bags! Argh. I don't think she understood what the item was that she got a glimpse of, so I'm hoping I can still surprise her.
When we got home, I took each child in turn into the wrapping room, where they chose paper and bows and tags for each gift. Then all the presents went up under the tree. In reality, the kids are already enjoying playing with the gifts- arranging and rearranging them like building blocks and stacking them to make forts and displays. Who needs to unwrap when gifts are so fun!?
So although the evening was a delightful success, I'm thinking it could be even better with my newest invention: the Spyfree Shopper-cart (AKA Peek-a-boo basket). Plastic walls and lid modify your shopping cart to make it impenetrable to peeky-eyes and make Holiday shopping a breeze. Just crack open the lid and toss in a few Bakugan, then slam it shut and pretend you were looking at the My Pretty Ponies. Swiftly toss in some Wii games while the kids aren't looking, then spin around so it looks like you probably were just buying a cell-phone charger and batteries. When you get to the checkout, be sure to choose any candy-filled aisle, and the kids will be so busy comparing flavors of Nerds that they won't notice you removing items from the cart. Order now and get a FREE green opaque bag to carry items home in.
Just call 1-800-SPYFREE before your Holiday gifts get spied on!
To make this blog entry more enjoyable, google the word "chindogu".
No comments:
Post a Comment