The other day was my daughter's 11th birthday. It seems as she gets older, birthdays are getting harder. No longer are the birthdays, of cake and invite 10 of your closest playmates over. Now it's full blown parties that cost hundreds of dollars and filled with not only buying your kid presents, but also giving out goodie bags for all those in attendance. This year she wanted to go to the Adventuredome here in Las Vegas. We took two of her friends, because that is all my car will safely hold and besides the price of admission is prohibitive. We let her and her friends run the gamut of the theme park, while we waited over foot long dogs that were grossly obscene in length and too much to eat. We sat with the other parents among the gift shops, food court and screaming kids. And finally after 5 hours, several cups of cappuccinos, 2 bottles of water, 3 cokes, and decidedly stinking heartburn from that foot long dog, we decided to call it a day. When I called my daughter to find out where they were, they were at the arcade. When we got there, the girls were delirious with giddiness, not from the rides or eating hot dogs and cokes, but because they had discovered a game that dispensed tickets freely. Tickets that they had collected in big plastic bags. Tickets that they could exchange for prizes. The more tickets the bigger the prizes. I'm like how did you get those tickets? Hopefully by not spending her entire birthday money on stupid arcade games. They rush me to the magical machine and lo and behold, two other kids are pulling tickets out of the magical machine. When they see me, they surreptitiously move away, looking like they had just robbed Fort Knox. We go to the machine, but the machine was empty and there were no more free tickets to be had. Back to the booth, we give the lady our bag of tickets. I know what you're thinking here, I should have told them to give the tickets back, because in the real world isn't that like stealing? The girls knew that they had practically committed a felony with their eyes shifting left and then right, but hey, the girls came across it an
d seized on it, I
guess you could say they were entrepreneurial or at least that's the way I saw it. And besides, after a careful interrogation, I found out that it was her friend that discovered the magical machine and began pulling tickets, not my daughter, she was just an accomplice. I know, I know, that doesn't make it better or right, but I suspect if the booth attendant didn't say anything then we were good to go. And so, after it was all counted out, each girl got the big teddy bear and a good time was had by all.
d seized on it, I
guess you could say they were entrepreneurial or at least that's the way I saw it. And besides, after a careful interrogation, I found out that it was her friend that discovered the magical machine and began pulling tickets, not my daughter, she was just an accomplice. I know, I know, that doesn't make it better or right, but I suspect if the booth attendant didn't say anything then we were good to go. And so, after it was all counted out, each girl got the big teddy bear and a good time was had by all. Now back to the title of this post, the known or the unknown. After the party and several days later on my daughter's real birthday, it was on a Wednesday we gave her her the rest of her birthday gifts. Since she got the theme park party, we really didn't give her many presents, or at least anything she could get excited about. A shirt, a purse, socks, pjs. To this I did 
feel a little guilty that she didn't get anything on her wish list (it was all electronics). So I went out a bought her an IPOD Nano (to replace her shuffle we bought a couple of years ago). I had a brilliant idea. I told my husband that I would put the ipod in a shoe box. On a piece of paper, I wrote DS game/computer game. On the day of her birthday, I would give her the choice, the shoebox with the unknown or the paper with the game written on it (I told her previously that I would buy her a DS or computer game but that she would have to pick it out since I didn't know what she liked). Now as a kid, what do you think she chose? The known or the unknown? Everyone one I told said she would pick the unknown. My husband thought the unknown. I was hoping she would pick the unknown. That night came the moment of decision. She agonized over it for about 15 minutes. The shoebox was not wrapped, just a plain shoebox. The paper just had the words DS or computer game on it. In the end and to my amazement, she chose the paper. When she asked what was in the box, I said, she'll never know (well at least not until Christmas)!-Single D
feel a little guilty that she didn't get anything on her wish list (it was all electronics). So I went out a bought her an IPOD Nano (to replace her shuffle we bought a couple of years ago). I had a brilliant idea. I told my husband that I would put the ipod in a shoe box. On a piece of paper, I wrote DS game/computer game. On the day of her birthday, I would give her the choice, the shoebox with the unknown or the paper with the game written on it (I told her previously that I would buy her a DS or computer game but that she would have to pick it out since I didn't know what she liked). Now as a kid, what do you think she chose? The known or the unknown? Everyone one I told said she would pick the unknown. My husband thought the unknown. I was hoping she would pick the unknown. That night came the moment of decision. She agonized over it for about 15 minutes. The shoebox was not wrapped, just a plain shoebox. The paper just had the words DS or computer game on it. In the end and to my amazement, she chose the paper. When she asked what was in the box, I said, she'll never know (well at least not until Christmas)!-Single D
No comments:
Post a Comment