Unexpected

The most satisfying kind of Christmas gift - and the one most likely to stay for years of festivity memory - is the unexpected kind.

For weeks before Christmas, my wife and I have included our three-year-old darling to prepare and celebrate the holidays. Christmas tree and gingerbread man were decorated in a funny manner. Some of the decorations are traditional, some unconventional, and many are exaggeration. The Santa Claus decoration, as she'd made in the school, had five whopping eyes.

On Christmas Eve, my wife invited Jasmine to wrap the gifts - and again in the most unusual style. Unbeknownst to me, they made use of chocolate gift paper to wrap a scarf for me ("So that daddy will think that's a box of chocolate!"). Jasmine was pretty much focused on the task. Alas, that's a secret to trick the daddy.

That is, until I came home just after they put a finishing touch on that "box of chocolate."

I had not the foggiest idea what my daughter and my wife were doing. "What a beautiful day and a lovely girl," I said. And she is.

"Nooooooo, daddy, don't get too close," my daughter was really excited, "and you won't know this box is a scarf!"

When I realized that she had been trying to keep the secret but actually leaked the story, I told myself, "It's sure to be a kid's secret to remember."