Tuesday, December 20, 2011

SURPRISE!!! ???

This afternoon on the "prevening" (you know, that time between afternoon and evening) show one of the DJ's was confessing how her and her brother would carefully unwrap all their Christmas presents, then re-wrap them and place them back under the tree. That reminded me of the year my older sister, Renee and I accidentally found the stash of Christmas presents. Yes, we looked for them every year, but never expected to actually find them! Christmas is the most anticipated day of the year!!! As kids we would rush into the living room to see what treasures were left behind by Santa, we'd dump our stocking contents on the floor for more treasures. This particular year was different. There was nothing new, one by one the presents we found were revealed. This only confirmed our suspicion that Santa may not be real, another disappointment. By being sneaky we only ruined it for ourselves. I did my best to hide my UN-surprise, that was work. It wasn't even fun watching the two younger kids open their presents as they squealed with delight with each new unwrapped surprise. They were clearly having much more fun that Renee and I who opened our gifts with "ho-hum-ness" To this day if I am aware of a present nearby for me, I avoid that area! I learned that ruining your surprise only hurts yourself. Years later I wanted to surprise my husband (my ex) with a birthday party. I worked hard and made plans for a grand day to make him feel special. Unfortunately he found out and couldn't wait to tell me. He took a lot of pleasure in reminding me that I failed in keeping him from finding out about the party. I was so disappointed and learned that day that by ruining your surprise, you also ruin it for the person who has put in a lot of time and effort to do something nice. I never wanted to surprise him again. Why can't we just let things be? why can't we just enjoy the moment?

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