Do they know it's TWENTY-ONE at all?

The other night, before the Snook Powell tribe journeyed home, I took the children to Target to do some Christmas shopping. I know, I know it sounds like a weak idea, but it has its own subtle genius. A few years back Amy, Kat and I had taken Paul, Matthew, Katie and Elijah to Target right before Christmas and the kids were so busy with each other the adults were able to get some major gift shopping done.

This was my intention this time. Except, Paul was more interested in the gifts he was getting for other people, and Matthew decided to do his gift shopping in electronics. He was shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, when I said no to his plan of buying iPads for everyone on his list. Kyle was a pretty good trouper, he pushed a cart through the store, but every few minutes or so he would stop and ask me to buy him something.

The evening was not a total loss. Katie made most of Paul’s gift selections for him. Or, as she told it, she just gave him some good options to choose from. Unbeknownst to her he managed to sneak in a few gifts for her. A few weeks back he had called her and asked her what she might want. I believe he managed to get her everything she asked for. She was also a big help picking Kathleen’s gift. If not for her sage advice the boys might have purchased her feather earrings.

When it was finally time to check out little Kyle had reached a sugar induced fever pitch in his quest for someone to “buy me something!” Now Kyle is a very well behaved kid, and his behavior was in no way anywhere near the fits I have seen some other people’s children throw. In an attempt to change the subject I asked him if he knew what Santa says? He looked at me puzzled. “Ho,Ho, NO!” He shook his head and argued, “That is not what Santa says, Santa says ho, ho, YES!” To which I responded “ HO HO NO!” again. We went back and forth while waiting in line, then he made another effort to persuade me, “Jedsen, I can go all night with this ho ho yes, ho ho yes, ho ho yes, see? All night!” (This is actually pretty funny from the boy who is usually in bed before 8pm) I held my ground, “HO HO NO!”

Not to be dissuaded he tried another tactic, he picked up a Hershey chocolate bar and held it between two hands looking up at me with his most Oliver Twist face, “Please mister Jedsen, if you buy this we could share it” I admit I was tempted to give in, but I could see his cousin Katie making the OMG-are-you-falling-for-this face so instead I asked, “Does this work for anyone? Really? Who falls for this?”

Kyle sighed dramatically and put away the candy bar. “Amy falls for it”, he said.

“Really? Your Aunt Amy falls for that?”

“Well, sometimes, when she wants a candy bar”

From the mouth of babes.