Shopping at the holiday store

from seven:

Today I went to the holiday store. I bought 2 things for mom, 2 things for dad and 2 things for Jake. But.......I can only tell what I got for Jake. But you can't tell him OK? I got him a teddy bear named Roger and a slithery snake. The reason you can't tell him is because it's a christmas present and the reason why I'm not gonna tell you mom and dad's present's is because my mom help's me with this blog and daddy read's our blog. And I lost one of mom's present's. G.J. :(

from thirty-seven:

Okay, so what's weird is that we agreed on a topic tonight that I can't really write about, since I did not actually shop at the holiday store. But them's the rules, so here's what I've got: I sent in money for the holiday store. Yep, that's about the extent of my brush with the holiday store. The store itself is a pretty cool concept, actually. The parents send in money to the school, after helping the kids develop a budget to help them shop: 3 dollars for Dad, 3 dollars for brother...that sort of thing. It feels like a cruel joke to me that there's shopping going on that I don't get to participate in because I'm older than 11. But the real cruelness came in when Gracie had one of her holiday store purchases stolen during her afterschool care. Crueler still was her learning that she had been lied to by a friend. The kid told her she hadn't taken the gift even though there were witnesses, and the kid practically had the wrapping paper hanging out of her sleeve as proof. We tried asking the dad and again the kid to see if they knew the whereabouts of the missing prize--the dad said his kid didn't have it, and the kid blamed it on a 2nd grader. So, that was that.

I've spent the last few hours trying to reconcile my anger towards a father who would allow his daughter to lie to him, to another adult, to a friend...against the pathos I feel for a kid whose parents wouldn't--or couldn't--send in money for the holiday store. After much contemplation, and by the grace of God, I'm glad to say pathos is currently in the lead.