Proof I love my boys.

Should I ever need proof about loving my boys I now have it.

I was willing to look thoroughly and completely idiotic this weekend in search of something off both of their Christmas lists (Yeah – I just started Christmas shopping Saturday – I swear it’s not because I was procrastinating like usual).

Lets talk about Zach’s first since his mission for me was not too bad.
On his letter to Santa he said he wanted a Lego Star Wars book. Luckily for Santa, Zach gave me a little more detail on the book than he did Santa. He said “That one you know. The one that’s like one of those books at school, but it’s about Star Wars. Oh, and everything in it is Legos.” Clear as mud right? I asked Zach where Santa could find the book and he said “It’s at that store Daddy goes to. You know, the one by the mall. It’s got like movies and stuff.” (Yeah… “you know” is his new phrase by the way) That translated – Best Buy. Since the majority of what the boys want can be bought at Best Buy anyway, that was our first stop. After picking up the movies they wanted (Z – Percy Jackson, R – Toy Story 3 and Shrek 4, B – Beauty and the Beast), and after looking really, and I do mean REALLY, stupid on Ryan’s behalf, I went in search of that Lego Star Wars book. I looked where they had their few books – no Lego Star Wars books. Looked where they had a display of Star Wars collectibles – no Lego Star Wars book there either. Looked over where the Lego video games were – still no book. I’m starting to think maybe Zach made this book up. So, I suck up my creeping embarrassment and find a worker and go ask if they have any idea what I’m talking about, and if they have this book, or if this book is even real. First three people I asked looked at me like “What the hell are you talking about?” however, the third lady suggested I go ask the guy working in cameras… he, it turns out, is a Star Wars junkie. I find my Star-Wars-Yoda-Camera guy, ask him about the book, and he says he knows what I’m talking about – but no they don’t sale it anymore, and he doesn’t know the name of it. BUT I got a new clue. He said it’s like an encyclopedia of all things Star Wars and Lego Star Wars, AND it’s the size of a medium sized coffee table book. Good news right? Errr, wrong. I went to four bookstores before I found that stupid book, when I asked the workers if they had the book I kept hearing “Well, it would help if you knew the book’s name or who wrote it.” I mean come-the-flippers-on, how many freaking Star Wars Lego encyclopedias could there possibly be??!! The only reason we found it at the last place is because that store actually had a huge section just for Star Wars stuff. This is the book he wants.

I really really want to say lets just not talk about Ryan’s. I mean really. I swear – I think Zach put this idea into Ryan’s head just to get a few good laughs at his brother’s expense.
If you look here at the last thing on Ryan’s part of the list you will see the present that is the bane of my holiday shopping. Think it’s a typo that’s supposed to say Megatron? Well, you think wrong. Yup, he wants a Negatron action figure. Who or what is Negatron you ask. Apparently, Negatron is supposed to be a bad guy Transformer. And Zach is backing up Ryan 100% in this thought. Wanna know the catch? There is NO Transformer named Negatron. John and I figured well maybe there is, and we just don’t know about it. We asked almost all the workers at Best Buy, and a few of the geekier looking customers, if they knew who Negatron was. Some just said no, some laughed and asked if we were joking. One guy said “Don’t be stupid, there is no Negatron” when I insisted that was who my son meant, not Megatron. We spent hours looking at toy stores fueled not only by the boys’ insistence, but also by my older brother who was backing them up. We searched and we searched and we searched. We put up with laughs and constant “Do you mean Megatron?” because my brother was backing the boys up. Come to find out later, when my brother posted it to Facebook, that he has no idea if there is or isn’t a Negatron, he just wanted to see if we’d go nuts looking. Now I have to try to convince Ryan that Zach and Joe (my brother) were lying to him all this time and find out what toy he wants instead.

I hate Christmas shopping.