A girl and boy spent Christmas with their grandfather instead of opening the expensive gifts their mother gave them. They loved the cookie molds he bought at the store, but their mother didn’t like that they were playing with cheap toys.
I need to buy Alice and Peter Christmas gifts today. Lily thought as she drove from work to her house. She stopped at the mall on the way home and bought expensive gifts for her kids.
Lily bought the gifts two weeks before Christmas because she knew she wouldn’t have time later. Her job kept her busy, and she returned home every day after dinner. She didn’t see her kids much during the week.
As a mother, she always wanted to be with her kids, but she put her job first because she thought it was more important to make money than to spend time with them. She thought, “After all, I can buy expensive gifts for my kids with the money I’ve worked hard for.”
Lily hid the gifts in her closet because she had to fly to another city the next day for a business meeting. She planned to give the gifts to her kids the day before Christmas.
But the next day, Lily found out that her meeting had been canceled. “Yay! She told her kids and husband, “I can spend Christmas with you all this year!”
“Wow, Mom! That’s so cool!” Alice yelled and gave her mom a big hug.
“This year, why don’t we throw a Christmas party? What do you say, honey?” Lily said this to her husband.
After her husband agreed to throw a party, Lily sent invitations to all of her friends and to her husband’s father, Michael. When she showed her kids the guest list, they were happy to see that their grandfather was on it.
The kids really wanted to see their grandfather, but Lily kept them from him on purpose. She thought that her kids should only hang out with rich, smart people, and Michael was neither. The poor man lived in a trailer on a field outside of the city.
Lily could see that her friends were trying to stop laughing by putting their hands over their mouths.
Lily thought to herself, “I hope he doesn’t show up.” She didn’t want to invite Michael, but because her husband asked, she did. She thought that if her friends knew that her father-in-law was so poor, they would make fun of her.
Lily gave her kids the gifts she had bought for them later that day. She was surprised that neither of her kids wanted to open the gifts. “I’ll put them away in your closet. She told them, “You can open them when you have time.”
On Christmas Eve, Lily asked her friends to come to her house and sit down. But when she saw Michael walking toward her house, her smile went away quickly. Oh no! How did he get here? She was thinking, and her eyes rolled.
Hello, Lily! “It’s great to see you!” Michael gave a cheer.
“Oh, hi, Michael! “How’s it going?” Lily put on a fake smile and let him in.
Then Lily started talking to her friends, but Michael stopped them and gave his daughter-in-law a gift. He smiled and said, “This is for you, Lily.”
Lily could see that her friends were trying to hold back their laughs by covering their mouths. She knew they were laughing at Michael because he gave her a purse he bought at the grocery store.
Before she could say anything, Michael called Peter and Alice and gave them gifts. He hugged them and said, “I bought some cookie molds for my grandchildren.”
Again, Lily thought her friends were making fun of her, so she walked up to Michael and said, “We don’t need these cheap things you got from the grocery store, Michael! Or did you buy these at a second-hand store?”
Michael smiled at Lily and looked around the room. “Don’t be afraid. “Everything here is brand new,” he said.
“Whatever! We don’t need these useless presents at all!” Lily gave a shrug. “Do you think that my kids will play with cookie cutters? Jeez, Michael!”
Peter and Alice! She told her kids, “Show grandpa what I got for you!
Her kids looked at the gifts on the table and nodded.
“You guys know I got you the newest game system!” Lily bragged, trying hard to impress her friends and make Michael feel bad.
Michael had started walking toward the door, so she had done some of what she set out to do. He thought, “I think I should leave.”
Then, Alice and Peter ran up to their grandfather and gave him a big hug. They cheered, “Let’s play games, Grandpa!” and led him back into the living room.
Then, the kids took out the cookie cutters and asked their grandfather to help them bake cookies. “Grandpa, we even have the cookie mix! They insisted, “It’s going to be fun.”
But when Lily found out that her kids were making cookies with Michael, she sent them out of the kitchen right away. “Hurry up, kids. She said, “It’s time to open your gifts!” but no one answered.
Then Lily went into the kitchen and asked Alice and Peter to join her and her friends for dinner and to open the gifts. Alice and Peter said no. “Mom! “Don’t give us your expensive presents!” Alice cried out.
“Yeah, Mom! Look, we’re having fun baking cookies with grandpa,” Peter said, and the kids turned away from their mother and went back to looking inside the oven.
Lily left the kitchen and sat down at the dinner table because she felt hopeless. While that was going on, her friends went into the kitchen because they could smell fresh-baked cookies.
“These cookies smell amazing! Can we taste some?” A friend of Lily’s asked Michael.
“Sure, you can!” He laughed and gave each guest a tray of cookies.
While Lily’s guests ate the delicious cookies, she looked at her gifts and felt sad that her kids didn’t want to open them.
“Lily, your father-in-law bakes so well. Why didn’t you tell us anything about him before?” Someone she knew asked.
“Yes, these cookies make me think of when I was a kid. I loved making pasta with my grandma!” One more friend said.
Michael suddenly came out of the kitchen and sat down next to Lily on a chair.
“Lily, why don’t you come with us?” he asked.
“Michael, I don’t want to be a part of your baking. Lily grumbled, “Leave me alone.”
Michael smiled and said, “Come on.” “You know that your kids don’t dislike you. Because they wanted your attention, Lily, they didn’t open your gifts. “That’s how all kids are.”
“It doesn’t matter how much money you make each month or what you buy them. “All they want is your full attention and time, and I gave them that today,” Michael said.
Michael said something that Lily couldn’t help but agree with. She shook her head. “I thought they would like my gifts, but…”
Michael held out his hand and said, “They’re waiting for you in the kitchen.” “Hurry up. We need to bake more cookies for your visitors!”
Eventually, Lily agreed to bake cookies with her father-in-law and children. Later that night, her friends said they had the best Christmas party and asked Lily to host another one where they would only bake cookies with Michael.