I know it's not about the gifts...

But it really is so fun to get the perfect gift. Remember in the old Miracle on 34th Street, when the "bad" guy lost the trial against Kris Kringle? It's all over and he suddenly realizes that he has to hurry and pick up a gift for his son!!! I watched that as a kid and worried about the guy getting to the store on time.

So this year we get a stupid holiday wishbook from LEGO. For those of you who have not seen the massive, completely-unacceptable-for-people-who-don't-even-own-their-own-home collection of LEGOs that my children own, you've probably still heard how much they really love Legos. They are Lego boys, they never want to do anything but play Legos. Occasionally they will play video games or play outside on Great-Grandpa's truck, or even sometimes they'll eat & bathe & go to school and do all the dumb stuff mom makes them do. But mostly they just play Legos. And I don't mind, it's really a sort of ritalin for them, especially Kai. If you're going to have an obsession let it be creating really cool brick thingies.

I digress... So they get the stupid wishbook and start wishing instantly. They want the 3,000 piece Death Star (with TWENTY FOUR little Lego guys! The Lego guys are the cutest) and they want this or that: the whole book is their wishlist. But Jo especially loves this Lego Star Wars clock. He wants it so much! And you know, it is pretty cool, Chewbacca is ripping off the arm of the Storm Trooper, which I guess he does in the movie, but I've never seen it (and I've seen the ENTIRE series too many times.) and Jo thinks that's just so funny...

Anyway, the more worn the wishbook gets, the more and more he just loves this clock! I decide that's a pretty easy gift, we can definitely do that as opposed to the $400 Death Star. So a few weeks into November, I look at the Lego website for the clock. Sold out. Ok, so Amazon'll have it, right? Sold out. Ok, let's look at ebay. $150!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not really, who would do that??? It's 5x the price! On a side note, did anyone watch the office this last week? With Dwight and the Princess Unicorn? I related to poor Toby. The harder it got to find the stupid clock, the more I wanted it for Jojo. So I call the Disneyland Lego store, thinking I could get a friend from L.A. to send it to me. Sold out. Glendale Lego store, same plan. Sold out. Jojo is still talks about it and still really wants it. I'm getting sad 'cause $150 is just plain stupid for a clock, even if your kid's belief in Santa hinges on it. And Kai has decided that Santa is not real and that's really bothering Jo; he just can't understand how someone could not believe in Santa. So I'm dead determined to get this clock to Jo from Santa. I call the Bellevue, WA Lego store, sold out. FINALLY, I call the Denver Lego store, and they've got loads of them! They ship for a completely reasonable price and we got the clock! I don't know if this story sounds stupid, but maybe you have had a similar experience? I am just so excited to see his little face on Christmas morning when he opens the most perfect gift from Santa. And protect the innocence of childhood that he's been blessed with for just a little longer.