Day 20: Where Are You Christmas

By, Nate
One story that continues to float around my family starts with shopping with my parents for Christmas presents. Early on when we were younger, my parents made a decent effort to keep our presents a secret from us, so they could only shop for whoever wasn’t there at the store with them.

One particular trip to the store, I was hanging on the cart, trying to help my dad find all of the things he had on his list of things to get. We were walking down an isle and he suddenly grabbed a stereo boombox and put it in the cart. Curiosity immediately got the best of me and I HAD to ask who it was for; he told me it was for my older brother.

What he may or may not have known, was that my brothers and I had an information sharing agreement, so after getting home I told him that he would be expecting a new stereo under the tree. So imagine his surprise when after all the fury had ended Christmas morning and all the presents were unwrapped and there was no stereo anywhere.

I tried to do the honorable thing, and pulled my dad aside and asked him where the stereo was. He and my mom looked at each other, and both said, “Oops.” They then explained that they had accidentally forgotten the stereo and it was still hidden…..and that it wasn’t actually for him, but for me. I didn’t know what to say. Just goes to show you what happens when there are secret combinations at work at Christmas time.