Tis Better to Give...

I took Tyler to the store tonight to pick out a Christmas present for Danielle. We had talked about what he might get for her, so I thought this would be a quick trip. Not so.

He had originally planned to buy her a Littlest Pet Shop (LPS) toy. I had envisioned the $4.44 toy; however, he had the $38.95 one in mind. Since $5 was his limit, I had to veto his first choice. A little dejected, he stood in front of the huge racks of the $4.44 LPS toys and tried to pick one she might like. He settled on a chinchilla with a little cage. We walked down another aisle and then headed up to the checkout counter. About half way there he stopped and said, “I don’t think I want to get this for her after all. It needs to be something else.” So we headed back to the toys.

He put the chinchilla down and studied the rest of the LPS toys. He picked out a St. Bernard puppy on a snowmobile and held it for a minute. Then he put it back and said, “I think I should get her one with 2 animals in it instead.” Then he added, “Do I have a time limit?” He studied them some more and ended up with a pack that had a cat and a fish in it. Again we walked toward the checkout counters.

As we were walking he paused. Finally he held up the cat & fish and said, “I don’t think this is what I want to get her, either. I don’t want to get her a Littlest Pet Shop toy. I’ll get her something else.” So he put that one back and we started over.

We walked the pink aisles in search of the perfect gift: “How much is this?” “I think she’d like that.” “Is this more than $5?” “Aw, nuts.” There was one toy he kept coming back to (a Polly Pockets van and doll). Maybe he was hoping the price would change each time he asked? He looked at several items and rejected most of them. He picked out a little Dora figure and carried it around for awhile, but he ended up discarding that one, too. (By this time I was thinking maybe I should have imposed a time limit.)

And then a ray of light broke through the false ceiling of the Walmart store and shined upon a miniature Polly Pocket with a pint sized car on an end display we hadn’t noticed before. “This is what I want to get her! Is it $5, Mom?” I was delighted to tell him that it was actually less than $5 and he could pick out 2 of them for her! He was so excited! He grabbed 2 of them and was ready to go. He had found it – the perfect gift.

As we headed up to the checkout counter he was already begging to wrap it as soon as we got home. When we got to the counter, Tyler slapped the toys up and hopped around eagerly. Fortunately our cashier had a personality and talked to him about his gifts. He gushed about picking out the right present for his sister, wrapping it (“My mom said maybe”), and surprising her with it. Honestly, I got a little teary. It was so touching.

On the drive home he formulated his plan. “I know what I’m going to tell her. I’m going to say, ‘Danielle, want to know what I got you? I got you a big lump of coal!’” ha ha ha. He practiced it several times. Sure enough, as soon as we got in the door he shouted it out, as rehearsed. She was less than amused.

I let Tyler stay up a little later to wrap her present. He cut the paper all by himself! He wrapped it up with very little help from me and even redid the end when he thought it didn’t look nice enough. He got it all taped up and then wrote “To Danielle” on the front and “From Tyler” on the back. I didn’t even have to show him how to make any of the letters. (Boy, is he growing up!) Once he was done wrapping it, he placed his package carefully under the tree. He did all of this – this whole process - with so much care. It was so sweet. And never once did he say anything at all about Danielle getting something for him. It was all about making her happy.

This experience was so much more moving than the time I took him out to buy her a gift for her first Christmas. (I think that was the occasion.) He picked out a soft football with Pooh on it from the dollar store. When the cashier asked him who it was for, he replied, “Oh, just some baby that lives in our house.”