"I Miss the Days When They Made Toys That Could Kill a Kid."

We celebrated a birthday in the Despeedstra household this past week. The littlest Despeedstra is suddenly six years old.

Quite the event.

There was more planning and coordinating by the Despeedstra children than what NASA performs for a shuttle launch. I expected to see Gantt Charts and Open Issues lists…

These are my children!

It is funny how kids that can be smashing each others skulls one minute, are working “clandestinely” the next, trying to wrap gifts, and prepare for the unwrapping in a manner not seen since this. I guess this is one of those immutable laws whereby teamwork will be fostered with the knowledge that cake and ice cream will be the reward… Perhaps the Arabs and Israeli could learn from this!

The funniest part though was the bubbly excitement of the two older ones as they worked on wrapping the gifts. Small plastic crap can be entertainment for little kids as the wrapping paper starts to roll out! Half a roll of tape is a relatively small investment in the satisfaction of “mummying” the gifts in a mountain of paper.

Funnier still, is the process of unwrapping. With each gift the kids inch closer to her unwrapping. They scoot closer and closer until finally the mere act of sliding her finger under the tape to break a seam free effectively smacks one of the spectators in the face. The request to “move back, give her room” is followed with an imperceptible scoot backwards (microns)…

The hour’s work to wrap is destroyed in 2 minutes, yet there are no complaints by anyone.

Anyway… I’m tired off this post…

Don’t forget to thank the volunteers.

Rico