The perfect present

You know you've found the perfect present when it gets duplicated a day later by your mother-in-law.  Because my darling Boogaloo has an annoying habit of hiding in my cupboards, Seth and I decided that we should get her a hiding place of her own for Christmas.  We looked at a lot of tents on amazon. There were tents with turrets and tents in camoflage.  There were tents with dragons on the side and tents with Bob the Builder.  But my Boogaloo is rapidly developing into a girly-girl, so we decided to get her the girliest tent we could.  Voila!

She loves it. She drags it upstairs and downstairs.  She tumbles in and out of it.  She "disappears" into it, and calls, "Mommy, where you go?"  We have a blast. 

Well, this past week, after Seth got back from Taiwan, we dropped down to Seth's folks in the Salem area to celebrate Christmas and see some family.  And while we're waiting to open presents, we begin discussing the presents we've already opened.  We mentioned that we'd bought Boogaloo a tent because she spends so much time in the cupboards.  And my mother-in-law froze. 

"What kind of tent?" she asked. 

 Yup. That kind of tent.

  What a to do.  Do we leave the tent in the box and return it for something different?  Well, no.  Because everyone else is opening presents, and we've already told Boogaloo that we're opening presents, and this year, she's finally figured out what opening presents means.   So we let her open it. We even let her set it up.   

After all, we didn't pay for it, and she loves it, and what kid doesn't need a back up?  The way she uses the one in our livingroom, I am totally anticipating early rippage.  Still, next year, we are going to coordinate more carefully with the grandparents. 

Speaking of Christmas presents, did you know that Taiwan specializes in coral jewelry?  Now I do.  My sweetie brought me home a wonderful coral bead necklace.  One of the only perks of having a husband who travels is the exotic presents he brings home.