A Christmas Tale

WARNING: This post contains classified information about the true origination of Santa Claus. Please, do not read this post if you still believe a single over-weight man drives all around the world delivering presents to children in one night while driving a flying sleigh pulled by reindeer who know how to fly. Please by all means, do not read this post!

This is a tale of a Mommy (that would be me) whose favorite things in life include making her children happy.

This is a tale of a Mommy (again, that would be me) who has taught her children about Santa Claus. You know this story, it is common. Santa Claus spends all year making toys. If you have been good, you can write Santa Claus a letter and tell him what you hope and dream he will bring you when he makes his trip around the world on Christmas Eve.

This is a tale of a Mommy (yep, still me) who goes goal it is every Christmas to give her children their dreams.

This tale starts the day the giant sized Wal Mart toy advertisement made it into our home. The Short Chic fell in love with two things. One: A giant Princess Doll House,  Two: A Robot.  So, as normal, this Mommy goes about the task of gathering the desired presents to give at Christmas.

In addition, this Mommy believes that every little girl should get a new doll at Christmas. And knowing her daughter well, she picks up one of the limited edition Lalaloopsy dolls; her daughter just loves them.

This Mommy is not oblivious to the Black Friday ad's. She looks at them. She debates getting up early to go shopping, but has never once felt something is so important to get up and go shopping and give up valuable sleep. This is the case this year, even though she saw that Lalaloopsy dolls where on sale. But never mind this; she already had one stashed safely in the hiding spot.  (You all know the hiding spot, it is where Mommies and Daddies alike attempt to safely hide toys and gifts from eager eyes and snoopy noses until Christmas Eve.)

The tale takes a turn for the worse when the little girl in this story (you can call her The Short Chic) decides on the afternoon of Black Friday to add a new item to her wish list. A Silly Hair Lalaloopsy Doll.  Her Momma gulps, that is not the doll she purchased for her. The Mommy does a quick re-evaluation in her head and decides she can shift the gifts around; a new doll for the daughter and a doll for the niece.

So the Mommy takes off shopping and soon finds out that all the Silly Hair Lalaloopsy's are gone. Sold out. Unavailable. Store after store. No luck. She decides not to freak out because the Internet brings forth even more options. This is not a lost cause. Then she finds the worst news possible online. Unavailable for shipping. Out of stock. Panic sets in! What has she done. The Silly Hairs were right there next to the one she purchased and she decided to not get it.  Now she has to wonder, will there be more shipments? Will they restock their supply? All of this as she finds a stash of them on Amazon.com. And chokes at the cost. $90 for a $30.00 doll?? Are you kidding? No, it was staring her in the face!

The fear of seeing her daughter disappointed was causing wide spread panic. What to do? What to do? There have been close calls in the past, but in the 14 years the Mommy has been helping make Santa dreams come true, she has never once failed. Never. Not once! What to do? What to do?

Well, this Mommy started talking to others about her misery. And her coworkers took pity on her and started to call around to stores in their neighborhoods. One of her coworkers finds a Silly Hair doll in a small town outside of the city she lives in. The Mommy's friends start to tease her about a movie called Jingle All The Way, a movie about two dads who nearly kill themselves fighting over the last action figure both of their sons desperately want for Christmas. They make jokes and laugh that she might have to beat up a soccer mom driving a mini-van to get the last doll in the area!

The Mommy dashes to the store. Driving a total of 60 miles from her home (over 80 miles from work to the store to home). Luckily there was no soccer mom to beat up, in fact, there was no drama. The doll was sitting on a shelf waiting to be picked up. The Mommy secures probably the last Silly Hair Lalaloopsy doll in the Kansas City area!! (Trust me, this is not an exaggeration, she has called and checked!)

The lady working at the store, laughed when The Mommy told her how far she had driven to get this doll. She shook her head and asked The Mommy, "if this store did not have the doll, just how far was The Mommy willing to drive?" The Mommy, not knowing what to say, just said, "we will never have to know because you had it!"

The Mommy has a smile on her face that will last her until Christmas. She knows that on Christmas morning she will see a dream come true! And that is what all the work is for!

The Mommy realizes she did not do this alone. She owes a huge bit of thanks to her coworkers who used their resources to make this happen. I think those coworkers might get some awesome yummy cupcakes as a thank you!