Oh, Hon, You're So Busted

I had this plan. Other people do it, and quite successfully, so I figured that I could as well. I'd wrap all my Christmas gifts in color coordinated paper. It would be so pretty, having them all matchy-matchy under the tree on Christmas morning.

And then I thought, Self, if you're going to have purty wrap that coordinates so nicely with all the other gifts, why wait until Christmas morning to see them? Why not put them out as part of your holiday display? Put some under the tree, stack small ones on top of the entertainment center, deck the halls with them. (Or at least the bench in the hall.) Tied with raffia in stacks of three (two red and a plaid), they did, indeed, look festive. And decorative. And Martha Stewarty.

But Martha only had one kid, and she was probably raised by the nanny because in reality, when did Martha have time to read books or change diapers what with all her cleaning, cooking, crafting, and gardening?

My 4 kids are the downfall of my genius idea of decorating with wrapped gifts. The gifts that are intended for the kids, mind you. Now I may be dumb, but I'm not entirely stupid. I did not label these wrapped boxes, but instead used a tiny code handwritten on the bottom in an obscure location. I knew this code, but unless the kids knew what they were getting in advance, they wouldn't be cracking it. At least the part about what the gift was. The part that said who the gift belonged to was pretty easy to decode. I wasn't entirely worried, though, because those gifts were in plain sight and I'd be able to tell if they were messed with. If someone did look hard enough to find their name code and decided to take a little look-see, I'd know.

And I was right. I know that 4 gifts have been broken into. I knew that leaving the kids alone for a few hours last weekend while we took Micah to a concert was not in the wrapped gifts' best interest, but it was a chance we took anyway. If the kids want to ruin their own Christmas surprises, more power to them. And lesson learned for me.

Josh's was the first that I found violated. It was completely re-wrapped, and the code put back on. Except the handwriting clearly wasn't mine, and the code said nothing at all. It wasn't even a code, more like a mess of squiggles trying to pose as something. I opened it to see what it was, and ironically it was the pajama pants that Josh picked out in the store and I told him I'd wrap for Christmas. (Gotta love having teens.) No new surprise there for him, so I wrote a "totally busted, I know this was opened" note, slipped it inside the box, and re-wrapped it. But the other 3 gifts? Those were the daughter's.

She is the last one that I suspected. Oh, how deceived I've been. I have got to think of a sufficient payback for this.

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7 comments:

Cecily R said...

Heh. The fix on Josh's present made me laugh.

I was the sneaky peeker in my house as a kid. I still have to sit on my hands a little to force myself to be good. I'm better now that I'm the mom and have to set an example. :)

Siobhan said...

Take thge gifts apart and put something totally obscure in them and don't bat an eyelid. Wait till the last possible second to bring them out.

Roger Miller said...

I would put some of her own things, cds, headphones, socks inside the packages, re-wrap them and watch her reaction. And if you can get it on video, even better. Don't give in on the real gifts, until she confesses to the sneak and remind her that Santa isn't the only one who "knows if you've been bad or good..."

I look forward to seeing said video in the near future. :-)

Flea said...

Oooo. Good ideas. I think you should wrap chewed up dog toys. Maybe even dog leavings. A carrot. A tomato. Can of beans. Box of pasta. Whisk broom.

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with Roger! The look on her face will be priceless!

Burgh Baby said...

When I got busted for the same thing once (out of the eleventy bazillion times I did it--my mom SUCKED at wrapping and it was easy to disguise tampering), the thing she knew I had seen wasn't there on Christmas. Just gone. POOF! I didn't dare ask what had happened to it because that would have been a confession. It really was a very nice curling iron, too. Grrr....

JennyH said...

Ha!! Funny. I was a peeker as a kid as well. I would left the name label and rip the paper there to see what the box was.

The sneaky note was too funny!