Our soldier texted me the other day:
Chris: “Mom…what was the name of your book?”
Shelly: “Life on the Half Shelly. Um…why?”
Chris: “Pfeiffer (fellow soldier and friend) wants to buy a copy and read all the stories you wrote about me!”
So, instead of making Pfeiffer buy a copy of that not-so-best-selling paperback extravaganza, I pointed Christopher to my website. Here’s one of my favorites about our oldest – I can’t believe it took place nearly 12 years ago!
Christmas came a little early to the Schneider household. Well, at least to one member of the Schneider household. Christopher is in middle school now, sixth grade to be exact. As our firstborn, there were several things that terrified me about middle school (sixth, seventh and eighth grade). There was one thing that absolutely thrilled me, however. Parties! You see, in elementary school parents are recruited to help out with three parties each year, typically scheduled around Halloween, the December holidays and Valentine’s Day. I adore my children, and I honestly do enjoy helping the teachers, just not in this particular manner. I gave birth to three children, for heaven’s sake. Why, then, must I be subjected to 20 or more children, all on a sugar high and excited about the day’s events, yelling and screaming and acting like, well, children? Don’t get me wrong…they’re all adorable and having a great time, but on party days I carry a bottle of Excedrin in my purse, just in case.
So, in middle school there are parties. But these parties are after school hours (right after school lets out until about 4 or 4:30 p.m.). Kids must bring home a permission slip and return it by a certain date to be able to attend the party. That’s all I have to do…sign my name on a permission slip. That’s the kind of party preparation I can handle!
Christopher attended the first party and it took about 90 minutes for him to realize that he had to pay a nominal fee to play the party games. Each game, I think depending on how well you play the game, is a chance to earn raffle tickets. The more raffle tickets one has, the better chance one has at winning a prize. We’re not talking sticks of gum, either. There are DVD players, television sets and other really cool prizes to win. Christopher, however, chose to spend his $5 on snacks and only a couple of games during that first party. He learned his lesson and saved his money for the games during the school’s winter party.
So there I sat, in the school’s parking lot, watching kids pour out of the school at 4:30 p.m. Smiling, happy faces. The kids had a great time, too. My face was smiling because my kid had a good time and I didn’t have a headache because of it. (Am I beating a dead horse here? Sorry.)
Where was Christopher? I pulled out of the parking line and into a parking place. I kept a keen eye for my 11 year-old and was just about to rest my head when I heard a “tap, tap, tap,” on the passenger side window.
There was my boy, holding a huge box and wearing the biggest, goofiest grin I’d ever seen. Literally ear to ear. I rolled down the window.
“I won the grand prize!” he said with glee (I can use that word because we’re in the middle of the happiest season of the year, you see). “I won the grand prize! I won the grand prize!”
I opened the sliding door on our van and got out to help him load the grand prize into the vehicle. He couldn’t stop grinning. Nor could he stop talking…he said the following all in one breath.
“It’s a 13-inch color screen TV I won it in the raffle Mom they called names all throughout the party, and on the very last prize they called my name Chris Schneider can I put it in my room?!”
I began to laugh. I was so happy for my buddy. He’d never won anything that big. Out of more than 100 kids (I’m sure it was closer to 200 or 300), my boy came waltzing out of the school with the grand prize. I laughed, too, at the thought of letting this young man put a television in his room.
“What?!” he said, still with that goofy grin on his face.
“I’m so happy for you, honey, but there’s no way that television is going in your room.”
The mom in the van next to me had already rolled down her window to share in the joyous occasion, and began to laugh as soon as she heard me break the bad news.
“Awwwww, Mom!” he said. Still, the grin was on his face. I think he knew the answer to the question before he asked it. But maybe if he asked the question at the end of a breathless description, I might not hear him and just say, “Yes!”
“Where will we put it, then?”
Where indeed? We’re kind of the car and TV family. Five cars, five television sets. The kids play in the basement and have an old television set on which to play video games or watch Cartoon Network. When I say old, I mean from 1974 or there abouts. After much consideration, we decided to put Christopher’s new television in another area of the basement and use that for Cartoon Network and videos. The older television will continue to serve its purpose for video games.
Christopher and our other two children had a lovely holiday, but I’m not sure anything he received for Christmas could have put a bigger smile on his face. I do know this, however. My first-born winning a grand prize and walking out of school with that big, goofy, ear-to-ear grin was one of the best presents I’ve ever received.