In theory, I agreed with the 200+ people who said that Santa should find the kid, even if the kid happened to be staying at a hotel in Indianapolis. But then there was this:

The Hannah Montana electric guitar.

Alexis asked for it, and Santa was happy to oblige. I, for one, would have much preferred that Santa find a cheap acoustic guitar. However, upon digging around on Amazon, Santa found that the Hannah guitar was actually a much better deal than any of the poorly rated acoustic ones. So . . . whatever. A Hannah Montana electric guitar it was.

I didn't want to have to sneak it into the car. I didn't want to have to sneak it into the hotel. I didn't want to have to deal with telling the kid she couldn't take it to Nana's house (some cousins were there and electric guitars aren't exactly the easiest thing in the world to share). I didn't want to have to deal with hauling it around. I especially didn't want to have to deal with the legacy of the guitar. Santa was setting a precedent this year, and in the future he'd really rather not have to haul around large Christmas gifts.

So, Santa delivered a certain Princess ball to the hotel, but he left the guitar to be discovered after we returned.

The plan worked perfectly.

Except.

Except that upon our return to Pittsburgh, Alexis was worn out. It's hard work sitting in the car and watching The Little Mermaid for six solid hours. All the kid wanted to do was to curl up on the couch and cuddle.

It's hard to say no to that.

After an hour of cuddles, it took some serious cajoling to convince the kid that the oddly shaped gift near the tree needed to be opened. She was definitely excited about the guitar once she finally did open it, but I have a feeling she would have been just fine without it.

Next year, Santa, go ahead and stick with the $6 ball. It'll be OK.