Let's Wrap This Up

The plan was that I would drop Mini Monkey off at Grammy & Bapa's house and they would take her out for dinner.

The plan was that my love would then take Middle Monkey and Monster Monkey to see a high school wrestling match.

The plan was that I would take the ONE  MILLION presents out of the closet at my parent's house and drag them back to our house for sorting, wrapping, and storage. 

That was the plan.

Instead...I arrived at my parents house late and in my hurry to strap Mini Monkey into her car seat I inadvertently put my keys on the floor of their van that moments later pulled away from the house on course to enjoy a restaurant prepared pre-Christmas feast. 

I then proceeded to make 640 trips up and down the stairs lugging all of Santa's stash out to our van for transport.  I had just finished shoving the last of the three bicycles into the overstuffed space when it occurred to me that I didn't know where my keys were.

I started to look, in the usual places first, my purse, my pocket, the ignition.  Next, I searched the house, the ground around the car.  My heart sank as I looked woefully into the cabin of the van.  There was a good chance that the keys were left on the floor and covered with packages.

I knew that my only solution would be to unload the entire vehicle to see if the keys were present. So I did.

And they were not.

Around this time I could hear my cell phone ringing.  Amazingly, I was able to locate it. 

Keys?  Is that you?

No...It was my father.

"Hey kid!"  He said cheerfully, "We have your keys here.  Seems you left them in the back of our car." 

A new plan was required.

It ended up being a fantastic mistake.  One that I quite enjoyed.

I was stranded at my parents house.  There was nothing to clean or distract me from the job at hand.  No laptop to compose a blog upon, no emails to write.  No pile of laundry laying clean and forlorn on the bed begging to be folded.

There was a fantastic selection of coffee and a beautiful Keurig to brew a fresh cup.  All recent episodes of The Daily Show were DVR'd for my perusal.

The house was quiet and warm, delicious smells wafted up from the lovely and safe electric candles that my mother uses.
It was a soul soothing and productive ending.  Unexpected and much appreciated.  

In the end, after everything was wrapped and bagged, I sat back, sipping my coffee and surveyed my handiwork.  It was a Christmas fit for a king, or three little monkeys who deserve nothing less than the royal treatment.