Holly Jolly Christmas-Not!...The Attempt of a 'Fake Surprise'

I had it all planned out: I would know what I had for Christmas, and there wasn't anything alive, to foil my ingenious plan to discover what was beneath those beautifully wrapped gifts under our tree.. At least that's what I thought. It was the Christmas of the early 80s, very early. I remember we were living on Wanda Street then; me, momma and my uncle Scott shared the small two bedroom flat on the northeast side of Detroit and it was in a fairly decent neighborhood. But to get back to the subject, I had a fool-proof plan to peep into just one gift-the biggest one that was under the tree at the time. It had took me more than a week to get up the nerve to even make plans to take a peek; the suspense was tearing me up inside. I just HAD to know what that gigantic box held!

At first, I just had intentions to find out what was in the biggest box, but after escaping that whole 'getting caught' thing, peeking had excited me-and I had to do it once more. I was hooked! See, my technique couldn't be beat. I would patiently, and quite gently pull the gift wrapper at the ends where the tape had been placed, making it seem as if the package had not been tampered with. Once I had successfully snapped the once taped flap of the gift, I memorized how the paper and edges had been previously folded-see, I told you it was fool-proof! At least that's what I thought. I unfolded the paper neatly, calmly making an opening big enough to see what type of box was underneath. And at this present time, I couldn't have the faintest idea as to what the biggest gift was that year, but I do remember when I was at it for my fifth time and as I revealed a plain white box, I knew I had to go deeper. This meant that I had to actually open the box to see its contents inside. It was daring, but I was ready for the challenge.

The box was taped on all four sides; one at each end of the box, and then both sides had a small strip to secure the overlapping of the top with the bottom. I seen it as a no-brainer, but just as I went to gently remove the tape from one of the sides, the tape and a piece of the box came up together-I had pulled some of the box up with the tape-OMG! What was I going to do? I couldn't just pull it all the way off and replace it with a new strip of tape because the place where the box had been sheared would definitely show underneath the new piece of tape. I panicked, because it was close to the time for me to leave the house in order to catch the school bus, and not be late for school. In a rush, I just decided to place the tape directly back as I got it, rip and all. It was working out well-Until- my uncle Scott walked into the living room and caught me with the opened gift in my hands. Caught red-handed! I had no explanations, but the wheels were turning!

Scott scolded me of course, then and there-making threats that he was going to tell my mom what I had done. I pleaded my case by saying that one of the boxes had fallen and was ripped by a Christmas tree branch as it fell. He gave me that "yeah, right" look, and proceeded on out the door on his way to work. I felt like the explanation had worked, and he wouldn't carry out his threats, but somehow I knew better. I couldn't even sit straight at school for fear of what my mom would do to me when I returned home.

Everything was going good when I got home after school, mom acted as if she hadn't heard about my 'rat hole' escapade; my uncle Scott opened the door just as I was placing a gift under the tree for my mom-Note I said 'for my mom' and started in on me for the second time that day! "You still opening those gifts, huh?" he said as he closed the door. I was devastated!

And needless to say, my mom tore off into me. But what made it even worse, she made me sit there and open ALL of my gifts, three days before Christmas. Well, you would think that any child would be happy to open their gifts before Christmas, but since it was a result of me wanting to plan my 'fake surprise', it wasn't a happy moment at all. It was pure devastation, and on Christmas I didn't have the stomach to play with any of those great gifts.

I learned a valuable lesson that Christmas; a lesson that teaches one to be patient, and one to make you allow an actual 'surprise' when it comes to receiving gifts. I hope you've learned something from reading this! Happy Holidays for 2007 from my family to yours! J Selah