Our Little Secret

The week before Christmas, someone at work asked Jeff what we were giving Mia. He thought for a minute before saying, "I don't know." That night, he related the incident and concluded, "That didn't reflect well on me as a father, did it? They must think I am uninvolved in this decision, letting you do all the shopping." I assured him he shouldn't worry - maybe they just thought he was one of those guys who doesn't start Christmas shopping until December 24 :)
To tell the truth, I hadn't been planning to put anything under the tree.

1. We'd replaced our TV a month ago and Jeff and I agreed it was our family Christmas gift to each other. (OK, Mia wasn't consulted on that, but she's been watching it.)
2. We were flying to MN, and I had enough to pack with carrying gifts for our relatives. (In past years, I just ordered everything online and shipped them ahead of us, but this year's gifts didn't lend themselves to that.)
3. There wasn't a natural time to have an alternate Christmas Day. We put up our Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving knowing that we'd have to take it down by December 20 because our kitchen remodel was starting while we were away. (Un-decorating the tree is bad enough - Who wants to have to dust all their ornaments before they can pack them away?)
4. I knew Mia would get lots of gifts from the relatives, so moreo would only overwhelm her.
5. I'd purchased a few toys for her several months ago thinking she'd grow into them about now, but they are a bit old for her yet.
6. She doesn't understand Christmas yet, anyway.

While I think my rationale was perfectly sound, I did buy 2 teensy (and very practical I might add) little things for Mia in the last couple days before Christmas, only to be 100% sure I wouldn't feel like a bad mother later.
It all turned out fine, by the way. She got 8 or 10 really cool toys and books from our relatives. We let her play with some of them in MN, added a couple more since we've been home, and one or two have been held in reserve for another day. And that Kettrike that has been sitting idle since we bought in November? She has suddenly taken an interest in it.