Gift boutique and the art of buying presents

Jack’s school is having a gift boutique for a few days where they have lots of different gifty and crafty items for sale that the kids can buy for their family members. An envelope comes home, and we designate how much money our child can spend and on whom.

For instance, I gave Jack a budget of $20 to buy gifts for me, his dad, and his two grandmothers. $5 each.

Jack jumped off the bus with a big plastic bag jangling with goodies!

me: Wow, what’s all that?

Jack: My gifts from the gift boutique!

me: Oh yeah, I forgot all about that! What’d ya get?

Jack: A whole bunch of stuff, let me show you!

me: Well I don’t want to see my present if you want to save it for Christmas.

Jack: (stops) I ran out of money for your present.

me: Oh, but you had $5 for each person.

Jack: I didn’t know that. I thought I just had $20 to spend.

me: Geez I wish the teachers would explain what we wrote on the envelope. You didn’t see that?

Jack: No. But look! Fuzzy dice!

me: Wow. Who are they for?

Jack: I think for Daddy…he likes the Yankees.

me: Huh? Ohhh, Yankee fuzzy dice. Yes, that limits it a bit since there are a lot of Red Sox fans in our family.

Jack: Then I got this multi-tool!

me: For…?

Jack: Daddy.

me: Okay, that looks nice. Lots for Dad, eh?

Jack: And then this was for Grandma, but it says for the best Aunt, so I want to give it to Auntie Kim.

me: Did you get something for your Grandma’s?

Jack: (rummaging in the bag) Uh, no?

me: Sigh. Okay, I’ll give you a few more dollars tomorrow to get your two Grandma’s each a nice gift. Only for them though. You have to concentrate okay?

Jack: What about you?

me: Well, if you act like my sweetest boy ever, then I’ll be happy for Christmas. How’s that?

Jack: (pulls something out of the bag) Ta-DAAAA!!!! Well look what I found in HERE!! (and then in a French accent) Vould you like zomesing like Zees???

me: What’s that???

Jack: It’s for you!

me: You little stinker. You tricked me?

Jack: Yeah!

me: We’ll save it for Christmas. We can put it under the tree.

Jack: First we have to get a tree.

me: Yeah, we’re a bit behind this year…sigh…

Jack: Open it!

me: (always liking presents) Okay, thanks! (It was a really pretty bracelet with 2 X’s on it, with little diamonds) Wow, this is really pretty Jack! How did you know I’d like it!

Jack: It’s 2 X’s like kisses from me.

me: Awwwww….

Jack: You’re very hard to trick you know. Sometimes you just have to back off and let me do my thing.

me: Haha! So you had no trouble with the money and the counting?

Jack: It’s just like getting prizes at the arcade. You count down the tickets until none are left. Same with money. Every kid knows that.