Stahlke Adoption

Christmas Shopping

Our children love to give presents. Several of their teachers still talk to us about the Fall 2005 semester, when the children would frequently wrap toys from hom and give them to their teachers. We would hear from the faculty members, "Did you really intend that we receive ____ from your home?"

For Christmas 2005, we gave each child $30 to buy gifts for our immediate family, and at Walmart or Walgreens, it is actually possible to buy a present for $5. The children enjoyed the shopping so much that we've continued the practice for birthdays and Christmas ever since. Part of the allure, of course, is scoping out the toys that are available, and I'm constantly steering the kids away from things priced at $10 and up.

This Christmas, I've been taking the children to Walgreens, one kid at a time. Two days ago, Kola went on his first shopping trip, and he was full of questions as we drove to the store. "What's the store called?" "What are we buying?" And the eternal question we always hear: "Deleco?" ("How far away [is the store]?")

I emphasized to Kola that he would be purchasing six gifts, one each for Papa, Paul, Adam, Rachel, Sarah, and David. "Six, six, six," he repeated back to me. That's already an important number in our family, because we have six children. The number six was the first English numeral he learned, even before "one."

At Walgreens, he kept asking if he could buy a gift for me, or even more importantly, himself. But the bigger issue was price, which means nothing to a 5-year-old. Since 99 cents is too difficult to explain, I showed him the prices for $2.99, $3.99, $4.99, and $5.99. If the first number was 2, 3, 4, or 5, then he could buy the item.

"But, Mom, why isn't the price number a six?"

posted by Stahlkes @ 10:08 AM