Tricking Jacob

When we decided to spend this Christmas back in Cincinnati, Tim and I also decided that we were going to leave most of the presents behind to be opened when we came back on December 29th (today).  It just wasn't worth the hassle and excess luggage expense to bring them back.  Still, we wanted the kids to have some presents to open, so we brought two for each of them.

Jacob had wanted two video games this Christmas for the Xbox 360, Fallout 4 and Black Ops 3. Since I had decided to buy a PS4 for the family this year (yeah, I know, Jacob will get the most use followed by me), I bought those games for the PS4 instead of the Xbox.  These were the presents that we took to Cincinnati for Jacob.  He would see them before he knew we had a PS4, and I wanted to keep that a secret until we got back.  I explained the situation to Tim and told her how we would handle it.

When Jacob opened the first game, he immediately recognized that it was for the "wrong" system.  Immediately I asked Tim what she had done, how had she ordered the "wrong" game.  "You were supposed to order them for the XBOX!"  I acted even more exasperated when Jacob revealed the second game was for the "wrong" console.  

As I suspected, Jacob fell for the act. He was willing to believe that his mom didn't know the difference between game systems, while he knows that I do.  The next day he was laughing and told us how he couldn't wait to tell his friends how his parents had bought not one, but two games for a system we didn't own.

When we were opening presents at home, I decided to see how far I could push our luck by giving Jacob the extra PS4 controller before the PS4 system had been opened.  After opening the controller, he had a huge grin on his face and said that he had figured out what happened.  While my lame explanation that it was another mistaken order fell on unbelieving ears,. I had one more trick up my sleeve.  I had Aleena open a present that was roughly the size of a boxed PS4 system, telling them this family present was more tailored towards her and Nalin.  At this point, Jacob thought that he had me.  He boldly predicted that he already knew what it was as Aleena opened to reveal the Anki Overdrive starter kit.  He tried to pretend that this was what he expected, but it was clear that he was expecting a PS4.  

I let him off the hook a minute or two later and let them open the PS4.  I don't know how much enjoyment we will ultimately get out of it, but it is already off to a good start.