Until he opened the present Nutmeg Jim brought him. Then he promptly burst into tears. He wasn't just sad, he was MAD.
What horrible thing did Nutmeg Jim bring my little adorable child that would cause such a reaction? Underwear? Spiders? Broccoli?
No, Nutmeg Jim had the audacity to bring Austin some flannel sheets, complete with cute little penguins on them. Austin has been stealing my flannel pillow cases for months and begging for a set of sheets of his own since last year. And honestly, between you and me, I thought it was quite an upgrade from the Christmas ornament he usually gets from Nutmeg Jim. (Ally got sheets this year too, which she seemed very satisfied with, and Morgan didn't need sheets so she got a sock monkey hat and key chain.)
After we all recovered from the initial shock of Austin's outburst (and tried quite unsuccessfully to hide our laughter), we asked him what was wrong.
"Sheets are so BORING!" he cried. "I don't want sheets! You can't play with sheets." (Apparently he was expecting some Bakugans, even though I had some he could earn and he was too lazy to do it by learning to tie his shoes or ride a two wheeled bike so we can all go for bike rides together.)
"Besides," he went on, "these aren't new. We already had these." He said he had seen them in the storage room where I had (rather unsuccessfully) hidden them. I patiently explained that Nutmeg Jim must have been using our storage room to store things in too.
"Yeah," Ally said, "that's why they call it a STORAGE room."
Then he got REALLY mad. So mad that it started to make me mad because of how ungrateful he was being.
I had the kids read the note from Nutmeg Jim, which included the usual about keeping their rooms clean and being good because he was going to report back to Santa. This is usually when I have them hold Nutmeg Jim then for a nice, happy picture, but Austin started to punch Nutmeg Jim so we put him up on the tree, out of harms way.
By then I had had enough, so I went to get the sheets and take them back to decide later what I was going to do. But funny thing, Austin was holding the package and trying to open it. I took it away and he started to get upset.
"If you don't want these I'll give them to someone who is cold and will be grateful for them." I said. "Lots of little kids would love to have nice flannel sheets like this."
"I want them!" he said, "I like them. Don't give them to the children in China."
"No you don't want them," I replied, "or you wouldn't have acted like that."
"Yes I do. I like them, I really do!" he said, seeming pretty happy all of a sudden.
So, I told him he needed to apologize to Nutmeg Jim, who was still stuck in the undecorated Christmas tree for his own protection.
Austin picked up Nutmeg Jim, gave him a hug and said "It's okay Nutmeg Jim. I forgive you."
(Later Austin came back and told me he had a warm feeling, so it must be true - forgiveness is a good thing, I guess it doesn't matter if you're the forgiver or the forgivee.)
2 comments:
Jacob has been asking if Nutmeg was going to visit him this year. He will enjoy this story. I'm so glad he still visits your family!!!
Who is nutmeg Jim and what's the story behind his visit?
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