Daddy's Desk - Jan, 2008 "Tape Measure"

The preschoolers at Prince of Peace went Christmas shopping for their families last month, which kicked off the Galucki family’s 12 Days of Christmas break. On the first day of Christmas break, my 3 year old gave to me a tape measure under our Christmas tree. Christopher was so excited to give me the gift he couldn’t wait for Christmas day. As soon as I walked in from work, he presented it to me with the biggest smile on his face.
Well, Christmas break went on. On the second day of Christmas break, Laurie and I went to a Christmas party for her job; and on the third day of Christmas break we went to a party for my job. On the fourth day of Christmas break, we went to my uncle’s house for the first of many family gatherings in which the kids would benefit greatly. This was the official beginning of gift-giving. As much as we try to emphasize the true significance of Christmas with the kids, there’s no suppressing their unquenchable desire to receive gifts. And so the Lego-fest and the Transformer-athon began. Before this Christmas season, our children were already in possession of enough Lego bricks to build an extra room in our house. In fact, I’ve had recurring dreams in which I find myself a mere Lego figure in an all-Lego world. The nightmare usually ends when I pour myself a bowl of Lego Brick cereal and wake up in a cold sweat. And then the newest toy sensation, Transformers, had already “transformed” our living room into a virtual Hollywood backlot for the eventual movie sequel. Those are the toys our older boys Alex and Adam are currently studying. Now Christopher, thankfully, is still in
the very simple toy world consisting of trains, houses, and cars-which-don’t-transform-into-robots-bent-on-destroying-the-world. In fact, a visit to Toys R Us consists of 3 separate boys visiting these distinct sections of the store, while mom and dad hang out somewhere in the middle using those useless pink and purple aisles only as a shortcut to each of the 3 key areas of the store. We live in an all-boy world and we’ve got it down to a science.

So Christmas break went on. We celebrated the actual Christmas day at home by ourselves, but then journeyed north some 15 hours to visit our families in beautiful Buffalo, NY. At least that’s what Laurie and I thought we were doing. In reality, we journeyed north to make a freight pickup in Buffalo. Visits to both sets of grandparents on the 6th, 7th, and 8th day of Christmas break (including the divorced set on my side of the family…which, after all the legal work is said and done, amounts to a “bonus” day of Christmas gifts for our boys); more visits to more uncles and aunts on the 9th, 10th and 11th day of Christmas break…more Legos and more Transformers.

And finally, on the twelfth day of Christmas break, my true love gave to me a vehicle crammed with Transformers and Legos and 3 happy boys and a long 15 hour journey back home.

After it was all said and done, just like the annoying song “The 12 Days of Christmas”, I kept going back to that first day of Christmas…Christopher’s tape measure gift. I initially thought it was Christopher’s subtle way of telling me we needed a bigger home for all the incoming toys. But in the end I realized it was such an ironic and beautiful gift given the amount of joy our children bring to us each and every day. Impossible to measure, but worth a try.