{"id":542,"date":"2008-12-24T14:19:59","date_gmt":"2008-12-24T14:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pat-matthews.com\/stories\/2008\/12\/24\/i-cant-wait\/"},"modified":"2008-12-24T14:19:59","modified_gmt":"2008-12-24T14:19:59","slug":"i-cant-wait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pat-matthews.com\/stories\/2008\/12\/24\/i-cant-wait\/","title":{"rendered":"I can’t wait"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This tale is running in the print edition of the Chronicle, but they don’t have it online yet. Enjoy!]<\/em><\/p>\n

DaddyTales:  Christmas Surprises<\/strong>
By Patrick Matthews<\/strong><\/p>\n

I love Christmas.  I love the traditions, the presents, the sense of anticipation, the whole thing.  Most of all, though, I love the surprises.<\/p>\n

Every year, Christmas brings us new surprises.<\/p>\n

When my oldest was little, the surprise was that he didn\u2019t care about his presents.  That one wasn\u2019t so great.  Discovering that he was happier unwrapping toys than playing with them left both my wife and I feeling more than a bit disappointed.  We had, after all, spent a great deal of effort finding the perfect presents.  Instead, we should have just wrapped a bunch of empty boxes.<\/p>\n

Subsequent Christmases have been significantly better, particularly as the kids have revealed new quirks and interests. <\/p>\n

Last year, for example, Santa brought our three year old a red bike with training wheels.  After the little guy unwrapped it, he climbed on and stayed on.  He didn\u2019t pedal, but just sat there.  When we brought him his other Christmas presents, he balanced each on the handlebars to unwrap, and then handed it back to me to put on the floor for him.<\/p>\n

He spent almost the whole morning on his new bike.<\/p>\n

My father had his own happy surprise that morning, when he unwrapped a wooden airplane that the boys (and their mom) had spent the previous weeks making for him.  It was the only moment of the morning that pulled my youngest off his bike.  He hopped down and ran over to show my dad how it worked.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, grampa,\u201d he shouted.  \u201cThe wheels move \u2013 and the propeller moves!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d my oldest said.  \u201cBut don\u2019t throw it.  It doesn\u2019t really fly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh no,\u201d his younger brother nodded seriously.  \u201cDon\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

My dad agreed, trying to look serious, but unable to control the renegade grin that had taken over his face.<\/p>\n

My oldest\u2019s surprise last year was a bit more sobering.  He was in full gift comparison mode, checking everything he received against his younger brother\u2019s pile of gifts.  Since he received nothing on par with a bicycle, that approach left him somewhat disappointed.  I\u2019m hoping he also learned something.<\/p>\n

This year, however, the big guy has left that Christmas disappointment behind.  Instead, I\u2019ve been watching a Christmas transformation take place.  It started a few days ago, when I was cleaning the living room.<\/p>\n

An outburst of crying exploded from the kitchen, followed by my six year old running towards me.  He held a plush toy car in one hand and his favorite plastic mug in the other.<\/p>\n

I caught him in a hug.  \u201cWhat happened, big guy?\u201d<\/p>\n

He sniffled back his tears.  \u201cHe looked!  He looked at my presents!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPresents?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

He pushed away from me, holding up the car and the mug.  \u201cYes!  I was wrapping these up to give them to you and mommy \u2013 but he looked!  It was going to be a surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, big guy,\u201d I said, giving him a hug. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to give us those.  Those are yours.  I\u2019ll take you shopping next week \u2013 just the two of us \u2013 and you can pick out gifts to give.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I want to!  They\u2019re really nice!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou keep those,\u201d I said.  \u201cWe\u2019ll go shopping together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay,\u201d he sniffled.  He turned and slumped off towards his bedroom.<\/p>\n

The next morning, I noticed two little wrapped packages under the Christmas tree \u2013 our first two of the season.  They were too small to be his mug or his stuffed car, but the wrapping had clearly been done by six-year old hands.<\/p>\n

That evening, another little mystery package had joined them beneath the tree, and yesterday I spotted the big guy carrying wrapping paper back to the closet where we keep it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d  I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh nothing,\u201d he smiled.  \u201cBut it\u2019s a surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t wait.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This tale is running in the print edition of the Chronicle, but they don’t have it online yet. Enjoy!] DaddyTales:  Christmas SurprisesBy Patrick Matthews I love Christmas.  I love the traditions, the presents, the sense of anticipation, the whole thing.  Most of all, though, I love the surprises. Every year, Christmas brings us new surprises. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[123,118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daddytales-cute","category-daddytales-c"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DpYi-8K","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pat-matthews.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pat-matthews.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pat-matthews.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pat-matthews.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pat-matthews.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pat-matthews.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pat-matthews.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pat-matthews.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pat-matthews.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}