Ahhhh...the Spirit of Christmas (as sponsored by Nintendo)

First, I want to thank everyone in my little bloggy world for all their kind words from last Friday's post. The wine and pizza were great, Matt was wonderful and Lola even got an international doggy boyfriend out of the whole thing...so, really, I can't complain!  Again, thanks! I am feeling much more like myself today!

My problems of Friday evening were quickly replaced on Saturday morning with some amusement.  Matt was going to see the oldest kiddo in a her Holiday (seriously...it was so p.c. that no one even played anything that was blatantly "Christmas" which I find even MORE ironic considering it was held in and lessons are sponsored by a church...but anywhoo...) piano recital (read: 2 hours of watching like 46 other kids do their non-Christmas musical thing while you patiently wait to see your kid's 3 minutes of tickling the ivories to "Oh Suzanna").  I have gone to several of these with Matt and watched his kiddos, so Saturday morning I managed to avoid the recital due to all the various and sundry Christmas chores I had to do.  And I really did have like Christmas deadlines since I had a Christmas dinner with friends that evening at 5:00 and as of 10:00 still had not finished making one of the gifts (Martha would be proud of me).  So, I was all ready to stay home, pull out the sewing machine and get all crafty!

Then, as he is leaving, Matt says, "Are you going out to the store today for anything?"  Why yes, yes I was.  He then says, "Well, I think I do want to get the kiddos a Wii for Christmas after all, so if I give you the cash can you just pick one up?"

Seriously?

I said, "Sure" while thinking to myself, "Really?!?!?!"  Ok, let me explain some history here. Oh, like back in early November he had mentioned the possible Wii gift.  I, being the super supportive woman I am, said that sounded great (despite my general aversion to all video games existing in my home) and told him that if he planned to do that we needed to go ahead and get one now, before the holiday craze.  Flash forward like a week later...I again mention that if he still wants to get one, we should do it now.  Flash forward like another week later...same helpful suggestion.  Ok, now it's like Thanksgiving and I say again in an uber-supportive way, "Honey, if you still want to get your kids a Wii we really need to get it now and before December officially hits."

Yah, well as you can guess from the start of this post, no Wii purchasing was done.  So, this Saturday (like, oh, less than 2 weeks before the fat man in a red suit forces his way down our chimney) he just asks if I can "pick one up?"  [sigh]

So, I go to the big box store from hell (where rollbacks are king) and wander into the electronic department which is just bustling to the seams with people buying every gadget and gizmo in sight (recession, my arse) and ask the video game guy if [gulp] they have any Wii (what is the plural of Wii? Wiis? Wii-i?) in stock.  I am apparently the 3,456 person to ask him that morning and he politely says "uh, no" and then informs me and like the 12 other people behind me that they are getting a shipment in tomorrow.  Hmmm...ok, not so bad. (turns out that was all a vicious, horrid lie meant to make desperate shoppers return to Wally-World only to be told, "Uh..not sure what happened.") I make a couple other local stops at various "marts" and shockingly no Wii in sight.  Of course, the whole time I have the tune of "I told you so" playing in my head. 

So, when Matt gets home with the kiddos I pull him aside and tell him the news.  He seems to be shocked that I couldn't just "get one."  Really? What is the deal with this? I have never understood the male tendency towards last-last-last minute gift buying, but c'mon...a freakin' Wii less than two weeks before Christmas?  Ok...whatever.  My theory is that the Y chromosome carriers walking among us are just pre-conditioned to believe that if they want something that it will just magically appear, despite global demands mixed with holiday fanaticism and Nintendo's secret plot to work the commoners into a craze for their product.  I mean, it works in most other aspects of their lives...Clean laundry? Magically appears! Groceries? "Poof!" and they are there.  Toilet Paper?  Gnomes must sneak in each night and put it on the roll.  Detergent? Of any kind?  Obviously, they are just self-replenishing! So, I guess it is not shocking that they believe that just because they want or need something that it will almost instantaneously appear in their lives. 

So, on Sunday once the kiddos are back home with the ex-wifey, Matt with a very serious face tells me that he will "just call around and find one." Oh, and did I mention that he just refused to buy one via the internet because of the "communist mark up"? So, with my inside voice I said, "Heehehehehehe! Good luck, sucker! Oh...and I told you so!"  With my outside voice, however, I very lovingly said, "Well, maybe."  You would think I had slapped him with a white glove and challenged his manhood or loyalty to the UFC!  He was like, "Oh, I will find one! If I just put my mind to it I will!"  Um...yah.  So I replied, "You do that, honey....you do, that" and removed myself from the Wii hunt for the rest of the weekend. I mean, really...does he forget that I not only worked like 10 years of my life in retail? And that as a chick I have been in charge of like all gift purchasing for years?  The proverbial gauntlet was so thrown! 

So, as of the writing of this post here is the situation on the Wii....oldest kiddo is getting an Ipod and youngest kiddo is getting a compound bow/archery set.  I think Matt's last words on it were, "Nintendo can just suck my big, fat..."  well, you get the idea.  And me? I have learned while wandering all over the city as the sidekick of Mr. Determination that you can internally sing along to almost all Christmas tunes with the refrain if "I told you so! Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!"