Christmas Secrets

Allison Clare's school has this thing called Christmas Shoppe, where the kids can buy gifts to surprise their loved ones.  They are given an envelope the week before to take home, and it has spaces where a parent can write the names of the people they should shop for, and a budgeted amount for each person.  On their assigned shop day, they bring the envelope and their money to school and an adult helps them buy things.  

I wasn't sure exactly how much to give her, but the information sent home had said most gifts were in the $1-5 range. I let her do some chores around the house and paid her the rather princely sum of $10 over a few days, budgeting $3 each for Sam and me and $2 for her sister and brother.  I didn't want her to have the experience of not being able to buy the gifts she wanted, but I also didn't want to give her so much that she'd have a lot left over.

So, on her shopping day, I went to pick her up after school and heard her telling the school secretary exactly what she had bought and for whom.  I walked in the door, and she ended by glancing at me, then looking back at the secretary and saying, "I hope my mom didn't hear that!  I want it to be a surprise!"  I feigned ignorance, and we got in the car.

On the way home, I asked her, "So, Munchkin, did you have your Christmas Shoppe today?"

AC: Yes.

Me: Did you have enough money for the things you wanted to buy?

AC: Yes.

A pause, as she considered whether she had given too much information away and thought about how to lie (for the first time, I think).  Then she said: Um, never mind.  None of that happened.

Me: Okay, Munchkin.

Later that night, she had her little shopping bag hanging in her room. Sam told her to put it away in her closet, and she told him, "I went Christmas shopping today!"  Then thought the better of it: "No, I didn't.  I went grocery shopping."  Another pause, then she said to him. "No, that's ridiculous.  They would never let me push the cart.  Never mind."

Her innocence makes my heart ache.