Christmas Secrecy

Elliot is 2 ½ years old this holiday season, and his level of engagement compared to last year’s is quite remarkable. Last year he was able to open his presents and was genuinely excited to see what he received. However, leading up to Christmas, he didn’t exhibit much in the way of anticipation or even awareness.

This year is quite different. I knew something had changed when he noticed that our local shopping center had put up its Christmas tree around Thanksgiving time and immediately started asking me when I was going to put up ours. This continued as he joyfully “assisted” in the tree decoration and has generally been in the holiday spirit 24/7 – as the little toy snowman who loudly sings “Frosty the Snowman” can attest. The fact that I haven’t broken that toy speaks more to my character than any public act of charity ever could.

All this newfound interest in Christmas hasn’t been without some missteps on our part. Some of Elliot’s favorite toys are food-related. He has a few toy pots and pans, some toy pizzas and various pieces of plastic food. He loves to pretend that he is cooking on our fireplace and then brings Lauren and me his latest creation. He then stands by as we pretend to eat it and tell him how delicious it is.

Because of this, we decided it would be fun to get him some kind of play kitchen for Christmas. As we were searching online, we found a toy grill set with a plastic grill, a sink, some burners on the side and a full complement of plastic hot dogs and hamburgers - it was perfect. As we were marveling at it online, we clearly didn’t realize that our little shadow, who was present in the room, had taken such a keen interest. He pointed at the screen and said, “I want that.” We laughed and told him maybe if he was a good boy, he might get it at Christmas. He moved on to something else, and we felt confident that we had avoided any further spoiling of the surprise. I mean, he is 2 ½, so odds are he forgets all about it in five minutes.

We quickly ordered the grill, successfully wrapped it and placed it under the tree without him paying too much notice. We were in the clear … or so we thought.

When I dropped him off at school today, I noticed that the school had posted the kids’ “letters to Santa.” As you can see in the attached photo, it’s quite toy-hamburger-focused.

I guess it’s safe to say that he is officially too old to slip anything past us. On the bright side, he is sure going to be happy come Christmas morning!

Jordan Echols is a Communication & Image Zone Manager with Texas Health Resources and Dad to Elliot.