Friday, December 19, 2008

The Christmas Jinx!

I have probably mentioned this before.. but I am a very confused person. I celebrate just too many things to stay sane! Now its Christmas.. I put up Christmas decor in the form of snowmen and santa figurines around the living room and lit up the lamps for karthigai (festival of lights in South India). While I was thus balancing both cultures I made the biggest blunder.. I might have accidentally let slip to His Cheekiness that "Santa is imaginary".. GASP!!

Maybe the reason was to get credit for all the gifts Santa brings him.. I don't even get a hug or a thank you!! Or to make him tell me the gifts he wants Santa to bring No "secrets between Santa and me!" or maybe I was just tired about all the hush and secrecy of buying gift, hiding them, holding in the secret for what seems like eternity... Anyway, I tried to remedy by saying we were his secret Santa and would be the actual people buying the gifts.. So maybe it was just for some brownie points after all!

But Cheeky being Cheeky.. has made it a point to prove to me that Santa is real.. so now we have been talking about Santa every day for the past month! I have gone on my knees and pleaded to the All Mighty Cheeky that I agree now that Santa is real.. but that does not stop him from going on and on!! I took him to the mall..and even offered to stand in line so he could go through the snow globe (glittering eyes) and sit on Santa's lap (bored expression).. But the imp thinks sitting on Santa's lap is "Too Silly" and wants to stand in line, go through the snow globe and walk out.. poor Santa would be crushed.. so I had to convince Cheeky to settle for a happy meal instead!

Anyway, like the troubles in my home was not enough, I took on more.. I was going to help host the Christmas party at school.. for his class! Phew! I had signed up for this in the beginning of the year.. and as you can imagine forgot all about it till I was idly looking at the notice board last week. After a complete melt down, I rushed to the Arts Store and got some lovely crafts for the kids to do (some great sun catcher kits with paints and brushes)... and the other parent organized the food. And then the day before the party a couple of parents reminded me about the teacher's gift.. at least I had a day to rush and get something together! Whew!

But wait, this story is not yet over.. far from it ... Come the day of the party, I realized I forgot to send invites out or at least put a note up on the notice board announcing the party and inviting the parents! While I was freaking out, Cheeky's teacher assured me that most people seemed to have remembered on their own as 2 parents had sent lunches.!! Fingers crossed we got geared up for the party!

And sure enough the turn out was pretty good.. the kids enjoyed the food and had a blast with the painting.. and the parents loved the new sun catchers! But then it was too soon to rejoice! We stepped out of the class and saw that Cheeky had gifts from some of his friends! Cheeky declared "How come I did not get gifts for my friends.. that was too mean amma". A frantic call to dad and we were headed again to the store again, now to get gifts for all his friends now.. phew!!

I decided to be smart and get Cheeky's christmas gifts too.. so I don't have to be back at the store again.. "Yeah he is gonna be pleased" I told myself as I got the car and the train and the tracks.. the Sneaky Cheeky spied the gifts and let out a big whoop! So much for Christmas surprise!

Later that night as I was putting together the little gift bags for his friends..
He told me "Amma give C a red car. C is my best friend and he likes red".
Raised eyebrows.. I continued with my task.. as I was not marking the bags there was no saying who would get what color.
Later Cheeky asked "So what did C give me?"
I responded "I don't think he gave you anything sweetheart".
Cheeky replies "That's okay, best friends don't need to give anything" uh?
After such declaration of friendship, I peeked in every bag till I found the one with a red car and left that for Mr. C!

Now, the gifts have been given and school has been closed for the holidays! You would think the worst is over? Cheeky now has a new set of demands for Christmas! Tell me where I can crawl under, will you?
Happy Holidays folks!! (pic courtesy: http://i-love-cartoons.com, http://disney-clipart.com)

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

NO SANTA? Whtch r u talking about? Santa of course is real ....

Rambler said...

this kid has some really smart things to say up his sleeve.. :)

rm said...

oh..that was such a lovely post. the way u forgot to invite parents..and buy gift...really i never thought it could be told in such a humorous manner.
Have a MERRY CHRISTMAS.love to nantu tooo.

Prats said...

Hrmmppfff...and if Santa is not the one I know of....of course he's there and he does climb down the chimney to put out gifts in the stockings... :D

But hecticism...is the order of a momma's day...coem crawl out of the snowy land into good ole happy suny Bangalore...
Happy holidays to you too and a big hug for cheeky

The Nomad said...

May not work... But you can try his own logic of 'best friends do not have to give gifts...'
and say Santa does not always buy everything a good boy asks :-0 wink wink... Somehow I dont think taht will work, but knwoing the mom&DAd you will probbaly give in and fulfill his ervy demand... No wonder he is getting cheekier, surprise him and leave out one or two of his demands, give him the rest!

noon said...

I am the monster mom - while KB had nice visions of Santa as this benign, loving soul, I told him he will write down in his notebook when kids behave badly - if they give mamma a hard time, he will leave them coals...no gifts. Now the last one week, it actually seems to work! :) I feel bad...but feel good in a way when I look at his innocent believing face! :)
Congrats on the pahdy girl! You somehow pulled it off! Car for every kid?!! Sheesh! You guys have to spend a lot at school yaar!

Fantasies of a Lifetime said...

lol , soon nantu might be writing dialogue's for movies :D . . . .And you need to get him Christmas gifts , gifts given earlier are just pre Christmas gifts :D

PG said...

A wonderful post! But, how could you do something like that? Of course Santa is for real!!
We were in a similar situation like you today when it came to buying gifts for him. Hubby wanted to buy something NICE at Lego for him. But, we wern't sure at all and took him with us. Huby took him away once the gift was decided on and I bought it later. But, todas kids can't be fooled so easily, eh?
Happy holidays to you!

Preethi said...

K3 - Guilty as charged!! :(
Rambler - yeah... and I am left at loss for words!!
RM - Haha.. thanks :) Happy Holidays!
Prats - Stop huffing and puffing...I was just trying to be up straight.. I hate lying to the kid!! But I should have known better :P
Nomad - I am sure he would respond "Good try".. as for the Christmas gifts.. I told him sweetly he could have his wish list, if he returned everything he got last week.. he has pushed the new wish list to his bday.. he still doesn't know how far that is!! :P

Preethi said...

Noon - Cars,.. they were those little tiny minuscule ones.. party favors really :P but yeah I do spend so much... Nice logic with KB.. glad it works so far :)
Vish - He might have to start writing dialogues for me first.. as for the wish list.. read my response to Nomad!
PG - Haha.. I knew I would have a lot of irate readers.. I really risked my life writing this piece didn't I? Nice trick with Richie.. glad it worked ;)

Noodlehead said...

sacrilege - no santa, indeed!! hrrrumph!

as for the rest of the post...lol! sorry but tht really was funny :) yeah, yeah...i might well be in our shoes in a couple of years! merry christmas and a happy new year to you all.

PG said...

somethin for you at my blog. please come and pick it.

rayshma said...

WHAT DO U MEAN SANTA DOESN'T EXIST???????
he DOES!
he got my bags back from the stupid airline! :P

Preethi said...

Noodlehead - happy holidays.. you area lot closer to getting in my shoes than you think!!
Rayshma - Santa got your bags.. and still sent me no treat? No Santa!!

Subhashree said...

Cheeky is very cute. And Merry Christmas!

So what toys did Cheeky wheedle you into getting him for Christmas? That is, if you managed to crawl out from wherever you were hiding!

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Pavi!!!! said...

Santa is not real???????????Reallly??????????tch tch! u just spoiled all the fun for me ;)

hehe!u 2 make one adorable momma-sonny duo i say!

Hope u guys had a Very Merry Christmas!

Sandhya said...

That was one hilarious post, so cute. You can't outsmart Cheeky!

Mama - Mia said...

you know I hate my parents for not letting me know Christmas ad Santa! so many gifts missed i tell ya!!

and hats off to ya for actually managing soo many gifts and the party et all!

and good to see cheeky knows what good friends are about already! C is very lucky to have Cheeky as his buddy! :)

HNY preethi! :)

cheers!

abha

Aryan-Arjun said...

HAPPY NEW YEAR DEAR...
My dear cheeky is really witty...good that Santa became his best friend...
AM

Aryan-Arjun said...

My blogger problem yaar..cannot see new updates...
AM

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