Every once in a while, the sequence of events turns unexpected and delivers a message from the universe that you weren’t expecting.
Such was this Christmas.
Madison, my three year old niece, approaches me with a small red squishy present. So, like many of the others, I start opening it while in the middle of conversation with those around me.
My conversation stopped as my mouth dropped open.
Inside was a baby outfit.
A blue and white top, with dark blue pants. It was tiny.
Tamara just sat there smiling at me, as if she was clueless.
I turned the package over to see if I had gotten the right gift. Across the bright red package were written the words: “To Walt, Love Red. Part III”
I pulled out the baby clothes and they were so tiny! I said to Connie, who was passing out gifts from under the tree, “I think I was supposed to get parts ‘I’ and ‘II’ first.”
The news hit me like a bomb shell.
Connie started rummaging, and I looked over at Tamara torn between surprise and excitement.
That’s when my mom calls across the room, “what do you got there son?”
I grinned. “Baby clothes!”
Tamara looks at me and the innocent look on her face is still there, only now it’s mixed with confusion.
“Those are Erich’s,” my mom adds. “Why did you open them?”
I looked down at the wrapping paper in my lap. “Well, one, Madison handed it to me. Two, it had my name on it. Tamara?”
Tamara gives me this “don’t look at me” expression, and turns to Paul, my dad.
He takes the wrapping paper and flips it over. “See, it says Erich.”
Apparently, my parents collected the wrapping paper from *last* year’s Christmas, and wrapped gifts with it this year, not checking to see if the paper was already addressed.
Well, I immediately forfeited the gift to baby Erich. However, the emotional aftermath stuck around for a while.
While Tamara and I aren’t expecting kids, I now know the feeling I’ll experience should she ever decide to surprise me in similar manner.
I always liked to know if God has a sense of humor, and this was the best Christmas “gotcha!” I could have ever asked for.