Poor Planning

Because of Spring Fever or some such madness, not only do we have Christmas to deal with, we also have birthdays coming up for two little greedy, commercial-brainwashed consumers.

When you have no money, but do have two kids who don't understand the concept of money and are poster children for the concept of "immediate gratification"... well you have a tough combination. And when you use the phrase "You can ask Santa for that..." each and every time your children just have to have something, but you refuse to buy it, it can backfire.

So this afternoon I purchased each boy a gift from Santa and a Christmas gift from mommy and daddy. We already have a birthday gift for each boy from mommy and daddy (a kid version mp3 player for Bubba and a kid version digital camera for Mooser). I have contemplated for weeks to get just the right gifts--gifts that are a little more expensive so other family probably won't buy them, gifts that are durable with minimal removable pieces, gifts that are appealing to both boys and somewhat even in their appeal. But most importantly I looked long and hard to find gifts that have the opening-present excitement value but also the long lasting play value.

So from Santa, Bubba will be getting the two things he has asked for from every single Santa we have seen this month (we have seen many!). An aircraft carrier (I got the last one after panicking since it is no longer available online!) and an International RXT. Well if I win the bid he'll get the truck that is the closest that I (Ahem, Uncle LegoMan) could find. He told Santa he wanted the actual truck, but this will have to do. I can afford $10. From us, he'll be getting a castle.

Moosie will be getting the pirate ship and a green truck from Santa. All the boy wants is a green medium sized die cast pickup truck and I can't find one damn it. I really don't like this whole eBay thing right now. Too much out of my control! He'll be getting a crash and go speedway from us. I think he'll really like it, but I'm not sure about the durability. We actually had something similar for Bubba when he was around Moosie's age, but we ended up passing it along to some other lucky family because it took up so much room. But I couldn't find the Thomas the Tank Engine mining town anywhere. He would've loved that, and no construction or exorbitant amounts of batteries needed! But, alas, it wasn't meant to be.

So I am now done with the boys. I spent more than I was planning, but who says credit cards can't buy happiness and a little peace and quiet for mommy and daddy? This Christmas shit is really making my quest to make my life simpler difficult.