Years ago when we first moved to Massachusetts I joined the Somerville Elks. It closed down and I moved to the Medford Elks where I stayed a member even though I moved to the south side of town. Every year the Elks has a Christmas party for kids of members where they give every child 9 years and younger a present and they have Santa, his elves, food, games and all that stuff.
I didn't take the kids last year but since the older two could appreciate it (4 and 2 years old), I signed all of them up, Sunday, December 3rd. I made a big deal out of it to get the kids excited about seeing Santa and getting a gift and running around having fun with other kids. This morning Patti even took them out to buy the boys matching shirts in festive colors and to get Emily tights that had a winter pattern on them. We got the kids dressed up and off we went, to the Christmas party. The kids weren't singing Christmas songs in the back seat but it was close.
I got the time wrong. I thought it was from 1-3, but it was from 11-1. We walked in at 1:10 and the place looked like, well, it looked like 80 kids hopped up on juice boxes and cake just got through. There were empty boxes and spent wrapping paper and all sorts of candy canes and holiday stuff all over the place. In fact, just as we walked in they were thanking everyone for participating in the raffle and for making it another successful year.
$#&%@#. &%#%$. $@%&@!!!!!!!!!
Damn IT!! I blew it. We were able to get the kids a gift to open but they didn't see santa, didn't get any food and had a quick juice box. It was awful. I felt about 2 inches tall. Patti tried to make things better but I felt terrible. She was much better than I would have been if the she had got the time wrong.
Ethan didn't care, he had a box with toy trucks for the ride home. And Emerson is 10 months old so he was clueless. But Emily pretty much cried the entire way home. I tried to tell her I made a mistake and got the time wrong, but that doesn't help a 4 year old who didn't get to play at the party, didn't get to see Santa and didn't get to have a candy cane. I'm usually pretty strict with the kids about not complaining when things don't go their way, but this time I couldn't be hard on her.
By the time we got home she was feeling better but I could tell she was still upset. But by the time I took her to swimming later in the day she was fine. She even told the waitress at dinner later in the night that she went to a party and didn't look over at me with squinted and sarcastic eyes. She understood, we all make mistakes.
So next I think I'll burn down the Christmas tree and try to run over the Easter bunny.
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