Whew!

I honestly thought I’d finally lost my mind on Sunday afternoon. My day was dedicated to wrapping gifts for our five exceptionally gifted and amazingly beautiful grandchildren with whom we get to spend Christmas in just a couple of weeks. Eeee!! I’m so excited. But I digress.

The unwrapped gifts were all in a jumble in the Texas bedroom, piled willy nilly, still in shopping bags from local merchants and boxes from Amazon. I carefully sorted and counted them, making sure each child was getting something from each of the four major categories:

1. Something they want
2. Something they need
3. Something to wear
4. Something to read

I have a love/hate relationship with this newest tradition. On the one hand it keeps me focused as I shop. On the other hand it becomes mentally exhausting, and I’m blaming it for my moment of temporary insanity.

As I separated the gifts into piles for each child I came across something I had no memory of purchasing. Not only that, it wasn’t a gift suitable for a child or even a young teenager. Where had it come from, I wondered. Who is it for? I came to the only possible logical conclusion: I’d been shoplifting while in a fugue state.

When Studly Doright came in from playing golf I sat him down and told him the awful truth. 

“You’re going to have to have me institutionalized.”

“Well, okay. Let me change shoes first.”

“Dammit, Studly, I’m serious. I have this gift that I didn’t purchase. I have no idea where it came from, and I must’ve stolen it.”

“Right. I’ll probably need to put on some long pants, too.”

He was lying, though, because he went out to work in his shop for the rest day of the afternoon leaving me to ponder the state of my mind. 

I was too upset to continue wrapping gifts, so I sat and flipped through channels for a bit. Here a commercial, there a commercial, everywhere a–wait! A Victoria’s Secret commercial! 

It hit me then that earlier in the year I’d purchased two brassieres from VS while  they’d had a promotion going on. My mystery gift had been a promotional item! Apparently I’d shoved it in a drawer and forgotten all about it. 

Thank goodness. I don’t have to check into a facility for the feeble minded. At least not this week.

Peace, people.