Christmas Honesty

At Christmas, you try desperately to keep the present that you got your loved one a secret! In a house full of little boys, this is very difficult. William and Abe went shopping with one objective: to buy each other a gift. I took William and Tim took Abe. They, of course, were very excited. They had a budget of $5 that they could NOT go over. William kept picking out $20 toys for Abe and I quickly explained to him that was way too much. We settled on silly putty and a package of assorted toy jungle animals (because Abe loves these).

At dinner, we always go over our day.  William and Abe talk about their shopping trips. I remind them that they CANNOT tell the other what they got.

WILLIAM: Oh, we already told each other.
ME:  What???
ABE: Yes, I told William that I got him--"
ME: Whoa! Don't say it...it's supposed to be a secret. That makes it fun! So you can be surprised on Christmas morning.

William is very sensitive to my emotions. If he thinks I'm upset about something, he always, very quickly, tries to rectify the situation.

WILLIAM: Ohhhh!  Well, Abe...I didn't really get you putty and animals.  I got you, ummm.....yogurt!

I roll my eyes at this point...if you're going to fib about it, at lease make it believable. Then I realized something.  Did I really want them to FIB about it??

I do not.  There was more to this conversation, but I did discover one thing.  Even in the little things, I want my sons to be honest. Always! Now, I quickly change the subject when they start talking about their gifts for one another.  It's safer that way!  :-)

These two are inseparable!  And, boy, are they excited about Christmas!

Our first live tree...the boys decorated every inch. The only thing they didn't
put on were the lights!  William declared that he had "the best time!"