Saturday, December 27, 2008

Lost ... and Found!

I am both offended and indignant on Barley’s behalf that so many of you accused my sweet, precious, innocent baby of eating the fishing license. And insulted. And hurt. And resentful. And … and …

And … ok … if I’m being honest {sheepish}…………. It’s one of the first places we checked as well, the backyard. The license was made of that hard plastic, like a gift card, so we were pretty sure she couldn’t have actually EATEN it already (although you never know …..) but we thought we had a pretty good chance of finding it lying somewhere on the patio.

Alas, Barley had the last laugh when the fourth – yes, the FOURTH – dig through the trash finally surfaced the lost card. It had somehow gotten wedged in the corner of a white gift box that Kellen had ripped when opening, and the white envelope the card was in had been overlooked the previous three searches through the trash. Blaine didn’t mind the four digs through the two trash bags full of wrapping paper and tape and name tags and torn boxes …. It was the unfruitful search he made through the “real” trash, full of coffee grounds and remnants from that mornings hash brown and ham casserole that he didn’t enjoy. Having done my own time as an elementary school child, digging through the disgusting bins of garbage after lunch in the cafeteria, looking for my retainer, I told Blaine and his naturally-straight teeth that it was only fair.

Needless to say, it’s not the first year a gift has been lost. We’re just glad we found this one without the hassle of having to get it re-issued. And I’m pretty sure most of us have lost or thrown away a gift or two throughout the years that we don’t even realize …. The bounty that is Christmas morning chaos, when it looks like a mini-mall has thrown up in the living rooms of America, certainly lends itself to losing a gift and never even knowing. Or at least not until months and months later, when you find it in the cushions of the sofa, like several of you confessed.

And now we enter the next phase of the holidays, known as “Just how long will the new-toy-excitement last, and then what on earth are we going to do to keep these kids entertained for another week of vacation??”

6 comments:

Karalyn said...

So glad you found it!

Poor sweet innocent Barley-all those horrible accusations.

Anonymous said...

And yet, somehow, I did think of Barley while watching the first part of Marley and Me yesterday. Oh sob! What a great, and so not a kid's, movie!

By the way, did Brayden's shirt get there?

Anonymous said...

Yay! I'm glad you found it. I was having horrible flashbacks of when we all pitched in and gave my husband's parents cash for Christmas for an Alaskan cruise they were going to take. Little envelopes of cash here and there. Sad thing is, they never, ever found the cash and we're certain it got tossed even though they looked. Ouch.

Barley is cute and all, but I was kind of leaning in that direction. My friend's yellow lab ate an entire box of tampons, prescription medicine samples (a quick round of hydrogen peroxide brought that up immediately), carpet and carpet pad, whole boxes of cereal (including the box), socks....you get the idea. Sorry, Barley. I was declaring you guilty by association. My bad.

Claire in Indiana

Mrs. Denten said...

Glad you found it We are missing a pair of pajama bottoms if you happen to come across them. I thought about going through the garbage, but thought, "who would throw out an unwrapped package of pajama bottoms?" but I guess you never know. The garbage was picked up Friday morning, so I guess we won't know until I come across them in that GREAT hiding spot.
Happy new year!
BTW, go see Marley and Me. Even if you read the book. Even if you didn't read the book. Go now. I'll wait. You will feel better about Barley, I promise.

Natalie said...

Yay that you found it!

And was it every school kid's rite of passage to dig through a trash can looking for their retainer? My sisters and I are all with you on that one.

kimi said...

We lost my son's PSP for about 2 hours Christmas Eve. He had saved his birthday money and half his Christmas money just to get this gift. My hubby and I took all the presents out from under the tree 4 times, we moved all the furniture, etc. I KNEW I had wrapped it...and I was beginning to suspect I would find him in his room playing with it...

Until we LIFTED the couch...it was stuck underneath. The box was the exact height of the couch so everytime we dragged it out, the box went with it. Yikes!!

I once search through every garbage can because I just knew I had the winning piece to McD's Monopoly...$10K...definitely worth the dig even if I never found the piece!

Glad you found the license though - what a great gift. I didn't know those existed...and now I know what to get my son next year!

Merry Christmas & Happy 2009,

Kim

They're-asleep!-Mom to:

Daniel-13 (okay not asleep!)
Scott-12
Bryan-10
Sarah-8
Dana-8