The Present

At our house there is a birthday season that runs from October to January. Thing #1 ends out the season with her birthday being in January. Unlike other moms that have the task of planning, preparing, and throwing a party with dozens of other crazy small humans, we go to Disneyland. The annual passes have practically paid for themselves. We celebrate everything there and I mean everything. So as long as I can convince my children that going there is better than a normal birthday I am going to use it. So when it came time for the Wild Thing's Birthdays and even my own, we went to the happiest place on Earth. My only job was to get one gift. For Thing #3 it was a tub of Lincoln Logs, for Thing #2 a horse with a carrying purse, and for Thing #1 a Rapunzel Princess Dress to wear at Disneyland. So of course I wait til the week of her birthday to buy the dress and of course I bought it online. Not my smartest moment, but I thought since I had paid the "special shipping" charge which is code for "Oh snap, I totally waited til the last minute to get a gift", I thought it would arrive on time. Yeah, I am that mom. So for the whole week, I was on STAMPS.com checking the status of my shipment. I even called the post office in hopes that it would arrive before our Saturday departure for Disney. So throughout the week, Thing #1 has been getting birthday packages. It seemed as though every few minutes there was something at the door. This goes on for two days.... Finally, on Friday we had received two packages and none of which were the dress. I had accepted the fact that my poor planning cause Thing #1 to be potentially without a dress. Then the door bell rings just after 5 PM. I was so excited I ran to the door only to find that it was Thing #2's jacket she had left back in Texas. At the risk of having to reveal my blunder, I quickly ran to Wal-Mart in hopes of finding a dress. In fact 364 other days of the year, I would find a bazillion dress up dresses. This day, NOTHING!!!! And its getting later. I run through the girls section and the only thing I can find is the Christmas clearance section. Luckily, I see a dress that potentially looks enough like the new version of Alice from Alice in Wonderland. All that to say, she went to Disneyland as a smaller version of new Alice and not Rapunzel. She had a blast and when we got home on our door step was the stinking package I had been stressing over all week. My husband had a good laugh and Thing #1 was all like, "Awesome, I get two dresses!" To which I respond, yes. Like I totally planned it that way....Next year, I am just giving them all cash.