St. Patricks Day

I’m sitting here at work dying for this day to be over. I keep thinking about the Corned Beef in the crock pot at home. This is a great thing. We haven’t had a “real meal” on a weeknight in a month and it’ll be almost done when I get home…. Just 10 minutes for the Veggies! YAY! What an easy evening!!!

But this one small detail just popped in my head….Last night Max said, “OOOH, Maybe the Leprechauns will come tomorrow!” CRAP!!! This shit started a couple of years ago when Max was in preschool. We had just got in the door and while I was getting dinner ready I saw that he was searching all over the house for something….

“Coop?! What are you looking for?”

“Lauren said that the Leprechauns left a treasure in her shoe this morning!”

That’s just fucking great! I tried telling him that he must have misheard Lauren, because Leprechauns steal gold not give it. He didn’t buy it at all. I could have killed this evil little girl and her damn parents!!! I started panicking when I realized that I had to choke down my urge to crush his little fantasy…If I told him that there were no such things as Leprechauns then that would lead to a conversation about the Easter Bunny and Santa. Don’t get me wrong… I hate the idea of an invisible fat man in a red suit taking credit for the gifts that I buy my kids. I also highly doubt that when Jesus rose from the dead he ran into a little bunny hiding eggs and asked for a piece chocolate… But Max’s sweet, innocent little face kept me from being so cruel. (He can acquire his own cynicism later.)

Instead, I told him to go check his room for treasure, while I snuck into my room and got out an old silver and gold, hideous looking, jingle ball pendant from my jewelry box and some change from my dresser. I then ran out to the front room and dumped the change in one of his hats and the pendant in his Hulk Hand glove. I had a lot of explaining to do when Mike got home and Max yelled. “Daddy! Look at what the Leprechauns left for me!” He was so happy…it was the cutest thing. Even though I was very pleased with myself…I was agonizing over the new tradition that I had created.

So today I’m trying to think of what kind of treasure the Leprechauns might leave for Max…. Luckily Max is 6½ and I probably only have a year or so of this stuff left with him….at which point I’ll be telling him not to ruin it for his brother.