'Wii' Wish You a Merry Christmas

The little Munchkeroonies waiting for the A-okay Christmas morning

Gavin and I decided last summer to finally join the rest of the gaming world and buy the kids a Wii for Christmas. When they stayed with family while we were on our Cruise, they played quite a bit of Wii and completely enjoyed it.

We were holding off based on past experience. The first time our family played Wii was at my Mom's house a couple of years ago. Within the very first game, Aubrey swung at something with such force that she accidentally let go of the remote, and it flew down and whacked her in the arm--leaving a bruise. Literally moments later, Gavin swung his remote (playing tennis, I believe) just as Lincoln made his way across the room. THWACK! Right upside Lincoln's head.

Yeah, it was a pretty easy decision then that our family was not quite ready for the action and adventure of Nintendo's Wii. So here we are now, a couple of years later, giving it a whirl.

The kids had no idea. They might have mentioned it wishfully once or twice, but Gavin and I played it off--saying they didn't need it because Grandma had one, they don't even play with the toys they already have, it was too expensive, etc.

Meanwhile, I had secretly searched for the best price online, negotiated with a store clerk to give me the same deal as a dot com, and stored the Wii and accompanying paraphernalia securely in our garage. Two days before Christmas, I wrapped everything and packaged it up in a box in my closet.

So you can imagine my surprise on Christmas Eve when Lincoln came downstairs and announced, "Mommy, Jace just opened up my Wii." WHAT?!?

I said to Gavin with a somewhat panicked voice, "Gav, did you hear what Lincoln just said?" And we went upstairs, simultaneously trying to shoo Aubrey and Lincoln back down, lest they know for sure.

Still so cute, even when he's in trouble.

Sure enough--there he was. All the presents under the tree, all the other Wii presents in the box, and Jace had to open THIS ONE. What a kid.

My first instinct was to just say forget it and open it all up a day early. But since I'm an absolute GENIUS (and don't you forget it), I thought to tell the kids that it was just Grandma's old Wii box, and she had put their presents inside.

Aubrey looked at me with her coy little grin as if to say, "Yeah, right." So, a few minutes later, while Aubrey was within earshot, I called my mom to seal the deal. Of course the kids could only hear my end of the conversation, which went something like this:

"Hey Mom, guess what Jace did? . . . He opened up the box you used to wrap the kids' presents. . . . You know your old Wii box? . . Yeah, Jace opened it and the kids were all super excited because they thought they were getting a Wii . . . "

My Mom had no idea initially what I was talking about, but she soon figured it out. And since the kids couldn't hear her laughing, they figured I was serious.

The best part was Christmas morning. The Wii box had been rewrapped, and we put all the Wii presents in their own little corner. After opening everything else, Aubrey finally asked, "Hey, what about Grandma's Wii box?"


We led the kids to the second pile of presents, and directed them to open the Wii first. Lincoln was thrilled, "YAY! We got a Wii! We got a Wii!!!"

To which Aubrey responded, "No, Lincoln. Remember it's just Grandma's old Wii box." (Hook, line, and sinker.)

So then we told them to open up the rest of the presents and find out for sure. Immediately upon opening the next one (a game or something), they knew it was legit. And they were just as excited as they would have been without Jace's little spoiler--perhaps more so.

Christmas had been saved.