Sneaky Claus

So about a week before Christmas, Gracie’s teachers decided to have all the students “write” a letter to Santa. They then posted the notes outside the classroom so parents could see them without their preschoolers noticing.
Gracie’s note said: “Dear Santa, I have been a good girl this year. I would like *a “big, big” teddy bear *chickens *a new car (for Barbie) *princesses and tinkerbells. Thank you.”
Well, Mommy had shopped on Black Friday and had the new car for Barbie, the princesses and tinkerbells all covered. By “chickens,” my daughter meant “DaDonald’s” chicken McNuggets, so an Arch card will work for that. The “big, big” teddy bear had me stumped.
Due to winter play practices, the next time I had to go shopping for Christmas was when I had Grace with me. On Monday, Dec. 23, I took her to see Santa for the first time. She was a trooper, climbing on his lap, telling him what she wanted – which included the teddy bear yet again – and receiving her candy cane, all before I had time to get out the camera. She really surprised me, so we were shortly on our way to Walgreens.
When we walked in, she noticed the “big, big” teddy bears all along the aisles. I asked her which one she asked Santa for, and we continued our shopping. When we got to the front to check out, I whispered to the clerk, while Grace was playing with a Rudolph ornament to be purchased for her stocking, “I need some help being sneaky.”
I then told her that I had a black trash bag in the car and wanted to buy one of the large teddy bears and was hoping she could do that while I took the first load to the car, and then I’d come back in the store with Grace and help them taking out their “garbage.” She smiled, I gave her the cash for the bear, and we went out to load the car.
On the way in, I explained to Grace that around Christmas it’s good to help other people, and I was going to help Walgreens by taking out their garbage.
When we went back in, the clerk apologized from afar that she got swamped, but she still came over and took the trash bag from me, then the manager of the store took it, winked at me, grabbed a bear quite swiftly from the top of the shelves and took it over to the photo area to ring me up. Grace was paying attention to a “Hannah ‘Ta’tana” popcorn bucket by the front doors, and didn’t watch the humorous task of having two grown men shove a large teddy bear into a trash bag again and again.
They brought me the “trash” and my change and we went out to the car again with my profuse “thank you”s and smiles for all.
I strapped Grace in her car seat and then put the trash bag into the car. When I did that, she said, “Ew, Momma. Stinky.”
I thought, “Not stinky, Grace. Sneaky.”