Favorite Christmas Moments – Circa Christmas 2000

Sunshine: Age 9:

I think one of my favorite Sunshine Christmas Moments happened Christmas of 2000.  Earlier in the year my entire family had gone to Ireland for two weeks.  We had a wonderful time and that trip is one of my favorite family vacations.  While we were in Galway, Sunshine bought a silver pendant necklace of the Boru Harp.  On the last day, we had to get up at four in the morning to make the flight and she accidentally left the necklace on the bedside table.  She was devastated.  Her Daddy hadn’t come with us and she was really looking forward to showing him what she’d bought.

This was in June.  Fast forward to December 22nd.  That’s right, two freaking days before Christmas.  She’s getting ready for bed and she mentions to me not to worry about her harp necklace.  My first thought was: what necklace?  My second thought was: Oh crap, that necklace.  So, I asked her why.  Here’s the exchange:

ME: “Oh, really?  Why’s that, sweetie?”
SUNSHINE: “Because I figured it out.”
ME (Oh crap, we have to deal with the Santa Clause thing): “Uhhh, you figured what out?”
SUNSHINE: “I figured out how he can bring me my necklace.  We learned about time and how the earth spins, and that means he can just pick it up on his way over the Atlantic.”
ME (Somewhere between laughing and Oh Crap.): “Um, Sweetie, we didn’t ask him about your necklace when we sent him a letter.”
SUNSHINE: “I know, so I left a note in the window last week so he’d have plenty of time to work it into his schedule.”

Whereupon, I’m laughing my ass off.  I mean, really, work it into his schedule? She goes to bed, I go in the other room and tell her Daddy and we both proceed to panic.  Every parents nightmare is about to come true in two days and we have no way to stop it.  When the necklace isn’t under the tree, the dream is dead.  She’ll know there’s no Santa Clause.  Just Hell.

However, *I* am a crafty and sneaky and, well, let’s just call a spade a spade, a DESPERATE mom.  Luckily, I could go back through all my transactions on my Quicken and I found the name of the shop where we bought the necklace.  We were only in Galway a few days, and we only bought stuff at one jewelry store.  I got up at four in the morning and called the lady at the jewelry store (I wish I could remember the name.  I think it was Thomas something.) and told her the problem.  Once she stopped laughing –and let me just say that took a minute or two.  I can still hear her cackling “He’ll pick it up on the way over!!”–she agreed to send the necklace via Fedex so we’d get it the next day, which was Christmas Eve.  She was my Christmas Blessing that year because she sent the necklace out within the hour, before my credit card had any time to clear!

I’ve never wanted to hug the Fedex guy so much in my life.  We got the necklace on time and I didn’t even wrap it, I just hung it on the tree.  Christmas morning she found the necklace and was ecstatic.  She put it on immediately and just beamed whenever anyone asked her about it.  Which everyone did because they all knew the story.  Later that night, again while putting her to bed, she says how she knew she was right:

ME: “About what, sweetie.”
SUNSHINE: “About Santa Clause.  Everyone at school says it’s your parents who bring the gifts, but I knew it wasn’t. Which my necklace proves.  Wait til I tell them at school.
ME (A little worried I’ve been snookered.): “So, you didn’t want the necklace back?”
SUNSHINE(Wide eyed and innocent): “No, I wanted it back, I really missed it.  So, when we learned about the whole time and earth thing I told my friend that that was perfect because I could ask Santa to pick it up on his way across the Atlantic and she said he couldn’t because he wasn’t real and now look: I was right!”
ME (Laughing): “You certainly were.”
SUNSHINE(Rolling over and snuggling Sweetie): “I knew I was right.”

Turns out Sunshine was just like everyone else in the family: Being nice is fine, but being RIGHT is way better!