Christmas Memories…working for our gifts

The year Dad fooled me on the computer was my first known memory of our scavenger hunts.  Maybe they happened before that, but I don’t remember.

As I said, my dad likes to get creative, and in true military fashion, we aren’t just handed things.  We have to work for it.

Now, sometimes when we work for our gifts, they are awesome and big things.  Other times, they are nothing super special, but getting to them is so much fun.

That particular year… when all the presents were opened, I saw Dad get a grin on his face and say, “What’s that on the tree?”  At the time, my brother and I were not inclined to pay the least bit of attention to what might be on the tree that shouldn’t be there… now?  We ALL make sure nothing is hidden in the tree first, before we commence with ripping into the gifts.

Of course, my father knows how predictable we are, so he changes it up on us.

He really is a brilliant man.

So this particualar year, after he draws our attention the tree, we see a clothes pin holding a note to one of the branches.

I thought the tree was going down as my brother and I both races to get it first.  I’m sure it was me that got it.  Even though he was my younger brother, I didn’t coddle him.  All’s fair in love and Christmas presents.

It was a clue.  (A clue!  A clue!  whoa… flashback to our Blue’s Clue’s days!)

The clue led us to the next clue, and to the next clue, and before long we had been all over the house collecting clue, anxious to see what awaited us at the next location.

I have to give my dad credit.  I don’t know how he did it.  The clues were so obvious once we knew what we were looking for.   I mean, we all had been in the bathroom that morning… how did we miss the clue taped to the back of the potty?

And despite the fact that we know that he does this, we still miss the clues every time we play this game.

He’s brilliant, I tell you.

Then, we get a clue that creatively directs us to the shed.  (Oh and did I mention that these clues never said things like “go to the bathroom”… they were ones that made you think… like… well, i can’t think of a good one right now, but they weren’t simple.)

Now, this is what I remember most about this particular Christmas.  Our clue directed us to the shed.  The shed was outside… and not exactly next to the house.  We lived in Virginia and this was before the winters started going back and forth from 70 to 20 degrees.  It was cold.  We also had to walk on the stone driveway.

Hey… I told you… we had to work for this stuff!

And we didn’t stop for jackets.

And I vividly remember my mom shuffling out to the shed in her light blue and tan housecoat and her big fuzzy slippers.

And when we arrived, there was an exercise bike for Mom, a basketball goal for my brother, and I think a TV for me.  It was my grandma’s old, little black and white TV.  I could be wrong, but I think that’s what was there for me.  We had a no TV in our room rule, so to get even a hand-me-down was awesome in my book.

I have no idea how the man hid these things from us.  It’s not like we never went in the shed.  We went in the shed all the time.  (He was a slave driver, so we had to get in there to get stuff to work around the house.)

To this day, I don’t know how he does it.

Now, Dad doesn’t do this every year.  But I remember a few years later we were all running around after opening a clue that was wrapped in a box.  We were again, all over the house and the last clue was to look behind the tree.

The tree was infront of the window and there was nothing there… it was then we figured out that we should open the shades… and there on the front porch, fully assembled was a telescope for the family.  (10 bucks said he set it up the night before and played with it.)

I know that we did this other years but those are the two that stuck out in my mind until last year.

The scavenger hunt was for my mother.  She wanted a robe, and an “old lady” robe as my dad likes to call it.  He played it off as if he didn’t get her the one thing that she wanted and then when we were all done opening presents, he sent her on the wild goose chase.  But this time it was a little different.  At each clue, there was also a gift for her to open, as well as little envelopes for the rest of us.  The kids and I collected lottery tickets through out the house with our names on them.

How did he do this?  Amazing.

And of course, Mom ended up at her robe after 20 minutes of scouring the house for all the goodies and mom’s final gift.

I did this a few years for my exhusband and my kids.  I remember one year, remembering our year out in the shed, I put a clue on the dumpster outside our apartment for my ex-husband (of course he was my husband at the time…)

And this year, my kids are apparently planning a scavenger hunt for me Christmas morning.

Christmases aren’t just sitting down and opening gifts at our house… they never have been… and I, for one, love it.  It makes Christmas morning last that much longer and fills my head with even more memories….

Until next time…

Heather