Oops She Did it Again

For the second year in a row Abby has fallen into the Christmas tree. Last year she was sitting on the arm of the couch when she lost her balance and went toppling in, landing on the presents stacked underneath. This year while Mike and I were sitting at the kitchen table chatting Abby brought a chair over to the side of Secondary Tree climbed up on it and immediately did a full gainer into it's artificial branches. She managed to survive relatively unscathed, but branches were bent, ornaments went flying and a couple of light bulbs were broken. Luckily, all told, the carnage wasn't too terrible for either Abby or the tree.

Once we picked her up and dusted her off, Abby was inconsolable. Mike was ready to unleash the bellow of an angry parent, but I convinced what this situation needed was a bit of time. So I sat her on a chair and waited until she got a hold of herself. We had a long talk about rules and how they were to keep her safe, but Abby was feeling so guilty I had a light workload. She cried and/or sniffled for a very long time, but eventually she managed to calm down. Ten minutes later while laying on the couch she started sobbing again.

Me: What's the matter Abby?
Abby: I'm not going to get any presents!!!

Well isn't that just a heart breaker?

Me: Abby, when you said sorry, did you really mean it? Were you really sorry in your heart?
Abby: Uh huh.
Me: Well that's all Santa needs to know.

Once many years ago my Aunt and Uncle made the decision that Christmas morning my cousins wouldn't get their presents under the tree because they'd been "naughty". They had to carry on to Christmas dinner and inform all their other cousins that Santa hadn't stopped at their house. Now I'm not going to judge my Aunt and Uncle for their decision, but I will tell you this; my cousins are now grown with families of their own and they will still talk about that Christmas. In their tone you can still hear the hurt and disappointment of the child on that long ago Christmas morning. So yeah, Santa is definitely coming.