Parental Set Up

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

It's 11:45pm and I've spent the last 3 hours putting together a play kitchen for my daughter's main 2nd birthday gift.  As I was making my 2nd cocktail of the evening (John was out with his soccer buddies), I was reminded of the story my dad likes to tell a lot....  

Let me preface this by saying, Christmas is and always has been my absolute favorite holiday.  And as a kid there was nothing better than waking up on Christmas morning to see what Santa had brought us.  Anyway, I guess when I was 7 or 8 years old I woke up at 2am on Christmas Eve going into Christmas morning, and came into the living room to see if Santa had been there yet.  My parents had been putting together a Barbie Fashion Stage (although I wanted the Dream House, and refuse years later to ever forget this sad fact) and other Christmas presents from "Santa" for the last 5-6 hours and were completely exhausted and fed up.  My dad just yells "no Santa hasn't been here and get back to bed."  

I honestly don't really remember this happening, although I've heard the story so many times it feels like I do.  But now that I have children and my oldest is old enough to start getting "put together" toys that I understand how that story is one of my dad's favorites to tell.  As parents we deserve a little pat on the back for un-packaging 72 random unlabeled wooden pieces, reading not so obvious instructions and screwing teeny tiny screws into teenier tinier holes in the wee hours of the morning!  All so our kids can play make believe Barbie fashion shows or whip up a pretend gourmet meal.  So, thanks mom and dad.  You were the best!