My sister and I ordered a Nook from Barnes and Noble for our mother this year for Christmas. We ordered it over a month ago, but due to a snafu with the Barnes and Noble shipping department, it was delivered to someplace in New Jersey instead of here in Georgia. My sister called no less than five times to get them to fix the problem and ship out a new Nook—we ordered the new color model and it was sold out everywhere. I finally took the matter in to my own hands and after a lovely little conversation with a Barnes and Noble representative, the Nook was finally on its way.
Jump ahead three days and the same Nook arrived at its destination.
Jump ahead again to tonight, and it was wrapped and ready to give to Mom at our pre-holiday gathering. Now, ordinarily, we wouldn’t be passing out presents three days before Christmas…but this year my nieces will not be able to come for Christmas due to work commitments, so we did a gift exchange today instead. Because the Nook was a gift from the entire family, we felt it was only right to give it to Mom tonight. But we couldn’t resist building the suspense up just a little.
Mom didn’t tell us she wanted a Nook. In fact, she wouldn’t commit to any special requests this year, so we had to wing it. We went with a gut feeling that she would love one (and she did.)
But we had to set up a decoy.
Since Thanksgiving, we have had her convinced that we were buying her an electronic shock collar and obedience classes for her dog because he has a habit of running away. We let her continue to believe that right until the last moment.
This is how it went down.
My niece bought her a cover for the Nook so we decided to let Mom open that first. When she got excited about the cover, my niece tossed out the line, “You have a Nook right? Mom said she ordered one.”
My sister picked up her cue and with spot on acting said, “That was what we got Grandpa!” And we did actually send my dad and his wife a Nook of their own…but that’s a different story.
Mom’s face fell as my niece told her she could always get one to go with her nice cover.
And my sister passed her the wrapped package that was the Nook. As she unwrapped it we continued with our talk of shock collars and obedience classes. My sister’s husband even tossed in, “be careful you don’t get shocked on that…we charged it for you” as she fought her way through the tape on the nondescript brown cardboard box.
She was sure she was opening a boring old shock collar for her runaway mini Schnauzer, Max. She was overjoyed to see the electronic book reader in its place.
That is what Christmas is about…just a little torture and suspense for the big reward at the end…
Or something like that…right?
Until the next time…I’ll be watching Charlie Brown so Linus can tell me the true meaning of Christmas!