Have you ever forgotten about a Christmas present? I did!

But not just a little one, a big one! The present that the kids would spend all the Christmas holidays playing with!

It’s Christmas night. The kids are in bed sound asleep. It’s quiet and peaceful around the house. I’m basking in the satisfaction of what seemed to be a successful Christmas experience for the kids.

As I’m trying to gather my senses after all the excitement of the day, I begin scanning through Facebook to view all your Christmas pictures. And, I see this FB post with a picture of a friend’s child playing with her new little girl kitchen set.

Suddenly, I’m struck by this overwhelming sense of terror…

“I forgot to give Kenzie that kitchen set I purchased online!” 

So much for peace and quiet, Christmas cheer, or sense-gathering, as the knot in my stomach begins to grow larger by the minute.

Her main gift. The most expensive gift. The one gift that would  have occupied her complete attention (and Kaleb’s) all during Christmas break!

How could I have forgotten about it?

Now, it’s no simple thing for me to buy Christmas presents anyway.
First, I don’t have the time.away from the kids to go Christmas shopping for them (or anybody else).
Second, I don’t know what to buy when I do get a little time away to go.
Third, my wife always did all the Christmas shopping and the only gift I ever purchased was hers.

Actually, I didn’t really buy her a gift. I just gave her money to go shopping on the day after Christmas insisting that she use it for herself, which she never did.

I suppose you could conclude that I’m an inexperienced and lazy Christmas shopper. I admit it. So I was proud to have purchased this particular present well ahead of time (and with the advice of Conner), and I planned to set it up on Christmas Eve and let it be from Santa.

I ran to the closet where it was stored and I dragged out the heavy box containing her little girl’s vintage kitchen set. My initial reaction to the horror that I was feeling was to put it together and explain that Santa forgot about it and came back on Christmas night to deliver it. (We actually saw that happen in an episode of Peppa Pig, so I was pretty sure I could sell it!)

I opened the box and discovered this was no snap-together plastic kitchen set. The first piece I pulled out was made of wood. Then, I pulled out a package with dozens and dozens of screws and nuts and realized that assembling this kitchen set was going to take some time. I mean like hours and hours, even days. I mean like I may have to hire someone to come over and put it together.

And so I began to reassess the situation. After all, didn’t she really have a pretty good Christmas without that present? Is she complaining about not getting enough presents? And besides, how would I explain it to Kaleb? What did Santa forget to bring him?

“You know, she’s got a birthday coming up in a few months. I think that would make a pretty darn good birthday present.”

I think I’ll just leave it in the closet for now and give it to her for her birthday, that is, if I don’t forget about it!