Holidaze

So I got back from my Thomas weekend to discover that Evan went and bought a fake tree. From Target. And LED Christmas lights. From Costco. That's the last time I leave that man alone for a weekend before the holidays. Now I have to go to Bath Body Works and buy that pine air freshener thing because, really, what is fake pine without the overpowering fake pine scent? I guess I could just decorate the tree with those tree-shaped car air fresheners.

Michael, of course, was just giddy and three-year-old-psycho-ecstatic. Especially with the lights wrapped around our stair banister, next to our fiber-optic two foot tree that we got last year.

OKAY, OKAY, we DID buy a mini fiber optic tree. From Target.

These are the sorts of wacko, I-can't-believe-we're-doing-this-but-he'll-love-looking-at-the-lights kinds of things you do when you have kids, okay? Yes, maybe our good taste and better judgement flew out the window once we saw how happy this kind of crap made our kid(s)...at least we're helping out China's economy.

Speaking of Target, their toy catalog came in the mail last week. This has to win the I-can't-believe-that-this-is-actually-a-toy award... Yes folks, they are charging $19.99 for a Superman cape with stereo speakers. Now I might be old-fashioned, but I remember the good ol' days when a kid, if he wanted to be Superman, took his beat-up blankie, safety-pinned it around his neck, and made his own swooshing noises. This device will probably be on the sale shelf come January along with the Fantastic Four Electronic Thing Hands (feet available too). The Darth Vader voice-changing-mask-with-breathing-effects probably won't be there though because...well, Darth Vader is just cool. Evan would probably want one.

One more thing to make me even more jaded during this retail season: the Walmart toy catalog. I was perusing this over at my folks' house. Included in the magazine are stickers that say "I want this!" or "Wouldn't mind this!" that your shopping-savvy-little-junior can stick all over the catalog (apparently the stickers were too small for "You don't buy me this, you're gonna see the mother-of-all-tantrums-for-the-next-three-weeks-MOM")

I'm glad my kids are still young enough that anything wrapped up in gift wrap is cool. And for Alex, well, just the gift wrap itself is a wild visual experience (but then again, that's what the fiber optic tree is for!)