A few months ago, I went shopping up in Germany with my friend Jenna. While we were taking a quick stroll through the toy aisle, I came upon a steal of a deal. The big Playmobil Egyptian Pyramid was marked down for a "this week's special". Noah and Nick had been talking about that thing since it came out last year. Nick is fascinated with anything Egyptian, and Noah thought all the secret passageways looked really cool. The only problem was Noah was right there with me. How to buy it for him, and have him not notice the 3 foot wide, 2 foot tall box in the cart? I am pretty good at thinking up plausible explanations for things on my feet, but this one had me stumped. Then Jenna came to my rescue. "Hey, my nephew would love one of these. But I don't have enough German money on me, right now. Could you pay for it, and let me pay you back?" "Sure, Jenna, I would gladly do that for you and your nephew."
She even took it home for me and hid it until I could go get it and put it in my secret hiding spot.
The day after we got back from Austria, we let Nick and Noah open it, since it was their combined birthday present. It was as big a hit as I had originally thought. Nicholas let out a loud, long whoop of joy, then started dancing around. Noah could not get the paper off the box fast enough, once he saw that telltale mini picture of the contents on the side of the box. I love surprising them with their hearts' desire like that every once in a while.
