Amy’s Report

(More on yesterday’s story. Read it first, please, to get the full effect.)

A week prior to Christmas, Amy had put an Xbox 360-size wrapped gift under their tree. Tom hefted it and knew immediately that it was much too light to be the real thing.

He had bought into the story that although Amy had tried her hardest, she just hadn’t been able to get her hands on one. (And at that point in time, it was true!) But, being a bit smug, he figured she would get him one as soon as possible after Christmas when more were available.

He bragged to her, “I know what THAT present is!”

She challenged him to tell her. He then demurred, saying, “Well, I’ll write it down and show you my guess after I open it. I may be wrong, and I don’t want to be hurtful.” That was considerate. He wrote, “Xbox 360 IOU,” put the paper in an envelope, and put it on the tree.

On Christmas Amy played it to the hilt. She whined that she had tried SO hard to get him the Xbox, but she just HADn’t been able to get one, and she KNEW how disappointed he’d be, and she was sorry, and even Jake and others (she named several) had tried for her, but...

Of course, being the loving husband he is, he consoled her. He hugged her and told her, “That’s OK. I know you; and I know you tried as hard as you could. I’ll get one in a month or two.”

When the big, lightweight box was opened it contained, not the IOU he had suspected, but a GAME for the Xbox. She told him she didn’t want to seem to be mocking, but she wanted to get him something Xbox-related, and please don’t think badly of her for just getting the game and not the real thing.

He then showed her the guess he’d written, and admitted he’d been wrong. Again she said how sorry she was, and again he consoled her. (Awwwww).

Then, after all gifts had been opened and it was time to start gathering up wrapping and sort things out, Amy said as if remembering, “Oh, there’s one more little thing I got for you, but it’s just a little joke gift. It’s in the closet.”

When she brought it out, he knew.

Tears flowed. On both sides, I think, but Amy only mentioned Tom’s.

My phone rang at about 9:00 a.m. When I answered, Tom’s smiling voice said, “Guess what I’m holding in my hands!” He was a very happy gamer. And just so you’ll know, the real fun for both of them was not in the Xbox itself, but in the mind games they’d been playing

So, at least until next year, this shall be known as “The Xbox Christmas” among members of my family.

Oh, it will also be known as the Christmas when Carol was sick. She was up most of Saturday night with some kind of 24 hour bug that had her vomiting, and then she spent much of yesterday in bed. Since our Christmas celebration was only going to include the two of us and Carol’s mom, we postponed Christmas for one day. Today will be our celebration.

Carol is feeling fine now, and is preparing our mid-day dinner. I’ll go pick up Grandma in just a bit and we’ll open our gifts, reminded that the gift of good health is one of the most precious.

I hope all of you had a wonderful, blessed Christmas holiday. We certainly did, and are.