Speaking of Simple Gifts

I love this kid....

Since his birthday, Toser has been asking for a rather expensive-in-my-eyes truck.  He saw it in one of those evil inserts that comes with other toys and I can't find it locally.  It was around $30 on Amazon for a couple of months; I put off getting it and the price jumped to $50 around Thanksgiving.  Although I was wincing at the idea of paying $50 for a plastic truck (!), it is the only thing he has consistently wanted for months and he's not getting that much anyway. 

My first mistake was waiting, my second mistake was letting Mr. A know the price.  He very sternly suggested we look elsewhere.  Actually, I think he said, "No way in hell are we spending that much on a toy truck for a 4 year-old," but you know, semantics.  After I exhausted all my truck leads and couldn't find it any cheaper, I lied to Toser (Mr. A made me do it) and told him they don't make that truck anymore and Santa would like to know what else he wants.  Toser took 2 seconds to think about it and promptly asked if I thought Santa could bring him a yo-yo instead.  After I wiped myself off the floor and tried to shove my proud heart back in my chest, I told him," Of course Santa can bring you a yo-yo!" 

Well, the joke's on me because guess what.  Yo-yo's are considered by most stores to be a "seasonal" item.  What season is yo-yo season, you ask.  Summer.  Why?  I have no flippin' clue.  I can order one online for $3 but I will have to pay $6 shipping (against my principles to pay more for shipping than the item costs).  I found a trick yo-yo at a local toy store but those are $14 and have special trick string or something.  I found a Yo-Yo Ball at Target and a very cheap plastic yo-yo somewhere else (and bought 2 of each because now Tater is saying Santa is bringing him a yo-yo, too).  And Mr. A doesn't understand why those won't work! 

Why?!  Because when your child asks for a yo-yo and you are determined to keep Christmas simple for him, you will kill yourself to get him the perfect, regular yo-yo he deserves, that's why!  Oh the irony.  sigh  So in addition to driving all over town in my quest, I also called many places and finally found a yo-yo I think will work. 

Tomorrow, I will go get him the Harrison Bros. embossed, wooden yo-yo.  Christmas morning, he will see the yo-yo and ask where his truck is (Wissa and Mimi got it for him; hopefully Toser won't remember or care about my lie).  I will learn my lesson the hard way and next year tell Mr. A he can have a say when he does all the shopping (or shove it.  Again, semantics).  I just keep telling myself at least all of this isn't over a hamster.

Simple Gifts

This time of year drives me crazy with the rush that begins before Thanksgiving and doesn't end until after New Year's. We try to do simple (not a lot of parties, small gifts, etc.) but during the holidays even simple can turn into extravagant before you know it.  I've been thinking about this a lot lately... No matter how hard our lives can be at times, dealing with Tater's medical issues brings and gives us so much we would have missed otherwise. We've met wonderful people, we don't take much for granted and we have no choice but to slow down and live life simply.

This is what I'm most grateful for: having to have a simple life.  We're super busy with doctors, therapy, and school but for the most part, we live pretty simply. We don't do a lot of extracurricular activities and we opt out of a lot of things because of the germ factor or because of schedule conflicts with appointments. Tater having a trach has made us change gears and spend a lot of time together as a family and we're pretty content in that regard. I know this will change as the boys get older and their interests start to broaden but right now, I'm so grateful we have the simple life. Especially this time of year when everything can get so crazy.