Filling the Void

I'm still trying to fill Nick's Advent calendar. This morning, I scrambled to find something to put in for December first. We used to buy the paper Advent calendar with the chocolate disks behind each flap, but Nickie started having trouble with chocolate processed in a plant that also handles tree nuts. So a couple of years ago, Mike came home with an Advent calendar that looked like a tall narrow doll house with twenty-five little numbered doors. Each compartment is about an inch and a half square.

I was surprised that Nick was enthusiastic about a dollar coin, a paper dollar, and a chocolate coin hastily placed there before he rushed out to find it this morning. Whew! That's one day. I just had to get the rest of the twenty-four days filled.

Last Saturday, Mike and I had gone to Target. We picked up one present from Nick's Christmas list. One. He's eleven. It starts getting harder as they get closer to being teenagers. I started looking for the tiny toys I could put in. Nothing. He's done with Bakugan. Beyblade won't fit. The tiny little figurines that look like erasers don't interest him. The silly toys that look like horse pills and move strangely because they have a ball bearing in them don't cut it any more either. Nick still likes the mystery mini Lego kits, but Target didn't have any of those. Argh.

So this morning, after I got Nick and Adrian to band practice before school and after just a little more sleep to top off my night, I headed out to ToysRUs. They had the mini Lego kits, Halo Reach Mini Megablock kits, small funky candies shaped like soda cans, and a mini slinky that probably won't work right anyway because the weight won't be right. Plus, I got a package of Butterfingers shaped like bells and Santa's coal bubble gum. Slap me now because I spent $54 on this junk.

So finally, Nick had gone to bed, with his usual excuses for staying up and a few extra. It's 11:15 pm and I'm still up trying to get this thing loaded. I dropped the cash box that only had coins and no singles in it, so that Mike's slippers probably now contain an assortment of cash. The ghetto kitty is pawing at my leg for attention.

The mini Lego and Megablocks kits don't quite fit. I got one jammed into the hole by letting the air out of the package. It's kind of like the time my brother's RV got jammed under a bridge that had sunk a few inches. They finally got it unjammed by letting the air out of his tires. That didn't fix his crushed air conditioner, but that's another story.

The dog is begging me to go to bed. The smell of chocolate is making me hungry. The tiny soda cans are just big enough that the magnets on the doors won't catch. The bubble gum just doesn't fit. No way, shape, or how.

And Nickie is up again, this time with a cough and a stomach ache.

Oh man. I just want to get to bed before midnight. Next year, I'm going with money, pure cold hard cash. It's got to be cheaper than this.

Thank you for listening, jb