Last Chance To Join the Magic

It's impossible to see my dining room table, a table big enough to seat 10 people, and that can only mean one thing.

It's very nearly time to deliver the Christmas Crazy fun.

This Sunday myself and an elf or two will load up a few SUVs and make the trek to Center for Victims. It will be swift because now that we've done this a few times, I've got it down to a science. The toys will be organized by type and age appropriateness. There will be toys for little kids, toys for big kids, and toys for everyone in between.

Center for Victims has this down to a science as well. Some items will be set aside for specific kids. Other items will be arranged so that mothers can "shop." Mothers who have no control over their lives right now will have a chance to find normalcy for a moment as they figure out the perfect gift for their sons and/or daughters. The gifts will be wrapped and smiles will be just hours away.

While Center for Victims is doing all of that, I will be making a stop at the Post Office. I have a pile of gift cards ready for Alle-Kiski Area HOPE Center. It's a pile of gift cards that will help them create magic for the kids they serve. They are kids who are also touched by violence. They just happen to be on the opposite side of Pittsburgh from Center for Victims.

Right now there is $1000 worth of gift cards ready for Alle-Kiski Area HOPE Center. That will go far. No doubt. But, you know how I'm greedy? I'm greedy enough to want to have to stop one last time to get more gift cards. I want to send them more. More magic, more gifts, more toys, more smiling children.

Got a buck or two? Let's wrap this all up now.

(Thanks for all of your help so far!)

For the Love Of Cardboard

Because you all are awesome and amazing and crazy generous, there's a lot of cardboard in my house. And I do mean A LOT. There's something that happens at Amazon that causes people to think it's a good idea to pack a single book in a box big enough to ship a 7-year old cross country. Not that I would do that, you know. I would totally tell the 7-year old to walk before I tried shoving her in a box and sticking her in the mail.

ANYWAY. Cardboard. There is a truly insane amount of it around these parts, in no small part because Amazon likes to put tiny things in very big boxes. Oh, and there are a LOT of very big boxes.

Along with the arrival of much cardboard has come the begging for much cardboard. Alexis is a hoarder (I wonder where she gets that from?) (Hint: NOT ME.), so she wants the boxes. All of them. She could fit SO many things in those boxes! All of the things! So many things she would possibly stop asking for that Tummy Stuffer that she will not get for Christmas because OH HELL NO. Boxes!

I keep saying "No." I'm mean like that. Also, I don't really want to have to sort through those boxes, so I'm mean and focused on self-preservation.

While I was busy protecting the boxes from Alexis, I forgot to protect them from someone else.

Kiara.

Kiara the kitten is like WOOOOOWEEEE! BOXES! I'm going to give her four of them for Christmas and she's going to think I'm the most amazing human ever because seriously she's all BOXES!!!!!!

She has spent the last several days playing with the boxes, hiding in them, chewing on the corners, and generally just enjoying their company. I believe candlelight dinners and long walks on the beach have been involved.

But then today she took her love to a new level ... Today Kiara found a strip of cardboard that was loose and she picked that cardboard up so she could carry it around with her. She stroked it and began calling it George and sat on the stairs, hugging her cardboard. It was a match made in heaven.

Kiara and her cardboard.

There is no such thing as sitting contently and enjoying the moment in this house, so of course Kiara's joy was interrupted. The interruption's name is almost always Penny. This time, Penny went barreling up the stairs, her curly tail wiping across an invisible windshield at top speed.

Penny and Kiara get along. In fact, they get along very well. Kiara is the boss and Penny has figured out that she can't change that. They sleep next to each other and hang out all of the time.

But not when there's cardboard involved, apparently.

As Penny neared Kiara and her one true love, Kiara FLIPPED THE HELL OUT. She hissed, stood up so she could arch her back, and full on bitch-slapped Penny so she wouldn't touch the cardboard. Penny is Penny, so she just kept going and didn't even noticed that she had just been smacked down by something less than half her size.

Kiara noticed, though.

When Penny finished passing by, Kiara went back to hugging her cardboard. She kept one eye on the dog, though. JUST IN CASE.

Excuse me while I go shred an entire cardboard box. I want to see what Kiara does if she has hundreds of strips of cardboard to love.

This Parenting Thing Is Hard Sometimes

It was one of those "stop and fill up the car now or really, REALLY regret it later" sort of moments, so despite my hatred for that particular gas station, I pulled in. As we crossed through the parking lot, Alexis asked if we were going to Hobby Lobby. It shares a parking lot with the gas station, but based on the disbursement of cars, it was pretty obvious. There was no going to Hobby Lobby because Hobby Lobby was closed.

Alexis was confused once she noticed the lack of cars.

"Mom, why is Hobby Lobby closed?" she asked. It was a Sunday, so the answer was pretty clear.

But the thing is, I can't half answer Alexis. If I had just said, "So people can spend time with their families," it would have led to a longer discussion about why aren't other places closed and isn't that sort of silly since they can spend time together every day of the week and blah, blah, blah. Alexis misses NOTHING. I have no doubt she would have found holes in that logic.

So, I told her the truth. I explained that the owner of the chain thinks people should worship on Sundays, not shop or work.

That gave the thoughtful one pause. It gave her pause enough for me to get out of the car and begin fueling up, but the second I returned, she was locked and loaded with more questions.

"But Daddy works Sundays," she said. She's right. He does. "So does that mean the person who owns Hobby Lobby thinks he's doing something wrong?"

"Well, yeah, I guess it sort of does," I told her.

She chewed on that for a minute. Then she broke into a million questions. Questions and questions from all over the place until somehow she landed on the fact that the private (Christian) school that she attended in kindergarten didn't allow Halloween celebrations because they considered Halloween to be "devil worshipping."

I'm not in the business of arguing with anyone's beliefs, but I found it very interesting that Alexis remembered that. "Mom, Halloween is about candy. And dressing up. THAT IS IT." She was terse in her words, which made me think she's been having that discussion with herself in her head for a while. "I don't worship the devil. I just like candy," she continued.

We talked more and more with me being very careful to say that different is not wrong. It is different. If Hobby Lobby's owner wants to close on Sundays, that's his choice.

(Thank goodness she didn't ask any specifics that would have led to how sometimes that owner imposes his beliefs on the employees because HOOBOY would that have been hard to discuss with a 7-year old. BUT ANYWAY.)

At the end of it all, I think Alexis learned a little about being more understanding when other people believe differently than she does. Or, at least I hope that's what she learned. There's not much else we can do to equip her for a world that is full of differences.