Merry ChristMESS

If there is any one thing you should know about me it is this: I am a planner. I don’t do last minute. I don’t wing it. I don’t go with the flow. I create the flow. I am the wing. Obviously, that means I am not out buying Christmas presents the week before Christmas. Hell, I am not even buying presents in the month of December. I shop all year long and sit back and laugh at all you last minute folks arguing over the last hoverboard at Wally World .

KARMA. All that laughing came back and bit me in the butt. Everyone can laugh at me this year because this year I was scrambling and buying Q’s “big Santa gift” on Friday the 21st.

About 6 months ago, maybe longer, when Toys R Us was going out of business, I scored big. I got Q this electric drifting bike thing (Huffy Electric Green Machine, to be exact). It was originally $200 but was on clearance for $99. I was so excited. Q was going to LOVE this thing! The box was huge. I literally have no clue how I shoved that thing in trunk and backseat of my small Benz. I quickly took it to my dad so he could stash it at his house. I was relieved. I had Q’s big gift out of the way. Christmas shopping was all down here from there.

Fast forward to December 17th. My dad, being the good Poppy Elf that he is, does me a solid and puts the Green Machine together. He puts it on the charger for the required 12 hours. Monday, the 18th, he goes down and turns it on. NOTHING. IT WAS DEAD. He had to go to work so he didn’t mess with it too much. Later that day, I was dropping off his birthday present and he tells me it wasn’t working. Mini panic attack ensues. I headed over to my beloved Amazon and find an electric crazy cart thing. I was thisclose to ordering it and solving the crisis but my dad assured me he would look at it and get it working. He talked me off the ledge and later that night he texted me saying it was working, it was a wire not hooked up, but he got it hooked up and all was well. He even sent me a video of my brother riding it. All was well. My shoulders relaxed a bit and I carried on.

Friday, the 21st, Jimmy went to my dad’s shop to pick up the Green Machine. For whatever reason, before loading it into the car, Jimmy tested it out. When Jimmy turned it on, they discovered it was DEAD. Which made zero sense. So my dad, Jimmy, and Taylor (who works with my dad and is more electrically capable than most) take the darn thing all apart and find the problem. Some control box (talking outside of my knowledge here so forgive me for the vagueness & crappy wording) thingy wasn’t working correctly.

Jimmy and my dad both know me pretty well and knew that if they told me I would FREAK out. They went online and found that a few area WalMarts were showing Green Machines in stock. They did the 1 2 3. BREAK thing and went out in search of the replacement Green Machine. Jimmy hit up 3 Walmarts before finding one in stock. The worker says they have one left but it’s under a stack of boxes and they don’t have a forklift driver there to move the boxes. He took J’s # down on the back of a receipt and promised to call him first thing in the morning.

At this time, I started calling Jimmy to see where he was because he had been gone for a while. He tells me he has good news and bad news. He hits me with the bad news: the electric bike has no electric. The good news: Our local Walmart has one in stock and he made good friends with Rodger and Rodger would give him a call first thing in the morning so J could come to pick it up. Ok, in my head that isn’t good news. No offense, but I don’t exactly trust Rodger. It was the 21st and we didn’t have a big present for Q!! Cue the LEAH FREAk OUT!

I was already being consumed with guilt since he wasn’t getting a go-cart and now I don’t even have a big gift to hopefully distract him with. I was being eaten alive by the fact that Q would only say he wanted a go-cart for Christmas and he wasn’t getting what he wanted. I mean, that’s the magic of Christmas. As a child, I never asked for something and didn’t get it. I got a purple Doodle Bear one year. I got a telescope one year. I got the things that I asked Santa for. I was feeling so bad about not getting Q a go-cart but it wasn’t practical. We have nowhere for him to ride it. He isn’t mature enough. They cost too much money. We had a long list of reasons why a go-cart wasn’t in the cards this year. I was mentally preparing myself to break my baby’s heart on Christmas morning. I said several times “I am sucking the magic out of Christmas.”

I panicked. Literally. Cried. I was running around the house like a mad woman. I went out on my back deck and kicked a foam cooler so hard that it flew in the air and broke into 3 pieces. I was a ratchet a$$ mess.I ran to my computer. I crossed my fingers that Amazon could wave their magic two-day shipping wand and have that electric cart from earlier this week to my house before Christmas. NOPE. The 27th. Ok. I told J we would buy it and put a picture of it under the tree with a note that it didn’t fit in the sleigh. He vetoed that idea. Which thank goodness because I hated that idea. I went to WalMart.com to see what I could pick up at a local WalMart that night. NOTHING. I am crying. I am scrambling from website to website. I hit up Dick’s Sports. I hit up Academy Sports. In my craze, I remember that I saw go-carts when we were walking out of Sam’s the other day. I went to Sams.com and AHHHHHH they had some at 2 of the local clubs.

Ok. Ok. Ok. Crisis averted, right? NOPE. When I added the go-cart to my cart so I could pay and pick it up the next day, it would only let me choose shipping. Obviously, that wouldn’t work. I thought “maybe it is because I am not logged in so I can’t buy it” and logged in. It tells me my account is no longer active….oh yeah, mom and I got new cards which meant new member numbers. CRAP. Ok, I will create a new account. I ran downstairs and got my purse with my card in it. I come back up and attempt to create a new account but it tells me my member number is invalid. FUDGEEEE. I frantically called my sister, because my mom was with her and didn’t answer her phone, and got my mom’s card number. New error message: “Account already desists with this member number”. Mom gives me her login information. New error message: “Invalid password”. I clicked the reset password link and my mom quickly changed her password. SUCCESS. I was in. I added the go-cart to my cart but still would only get the shipping option. I called my dad in a panic, who was currently on his way to another Walmart that showed the Green Machine in stock. Thankfully they have a Sams Card and the go-cart was showing 1 left at their local Sams Club.

Poppy and Gigi raced to their Sam’s. They get there and the worker informs my dad that they don’t have any left on the pallet and the manager might sell the display. A few minutes later the manager agrees that Poppy can buy the display. My dad and Tina had to spend another 2 hours waiting around for the workers to get the go-cart down and into their vehicle. (HUGE Thank You to them for saving the day!) My dad gets it home, gets it all checked out, and discovered it was missing a piece. JUST OUR LUCK. He took the wheel and went to Lowe’s in search of the missing piece. After some harassment at the local Lowe’s, he got the part and saved the day AGAIN by getting it up and running. We took possession of it on the 24th. 

Jimmy and I both were so excited on Christmas Eve. We moved our furniture around so that the go-cart could go by the tree. We got all of his gifts laid out and debated sleeping on the couch so we didn’t miss his reaction. We just knew he was going to flip out. Q is an early riser except for Christmas morning. This is the 2nd year in a row we have had to wake him up to check on his Santa loot. I got my camera and I got Q up. He came in the living room and literally was like a dud firework…whomp whomp whomp. Later, after he was more awake, he got into it and ended up LOVING his go-cart. He said several times, as he was making a dirt track in our backyard, that he loved his new cart! 

In hindsight, I realize this whole situation is not the end of the world, its a spoiled first world problem, but still, I want my baby to have a great Christmas. I think every mom wants that for their child. In the end, it all worked out, for the better in fact. QMonster got exactly what he asked for. The magic of Christmas filled our house. My mom guilt was totally gone. While it was a ChristMESS, it was worth it all to see my baby so excited and feeling the Christmas magic.

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas! Anyone else have a ChristMESS?