It was the eve of Christmas Eve...the children were scattered about the house, playing nicely, the Mr. had just made a run to my parent's to deliver some crock-pots when Baby Girl cocked her ear to the side and said, "Who's crying, mama?".
"No one is crying, hon, that's Belle singing." (She was in the shower, singing away.)
And that's when I heard it...coming up the stairs...crying. From Dubya...and stammering, "Mom, I...I didn't mean to...I..."...and I said, panic rising in my chest, "You didn't WHAT?".
Hambone, who had accompanied Dubya up the stairs said, "Mom, something hit the TV."
Now...let's back up just a sec...
For the first time ever, in our whole lives, the Mr. and I went shopping on Black Friday. There was a great deal on TVs at Sam's Club and we thought, "what the heck, let's see if we can get one". See, we've lived our entire adult lives with junk. A TV that I received for Christmas as a 16 year old served us well for about the first 8 years of our marriage. Then a hand-me-down TV from my Gram and Gramp sufficed for a couple of years, and finally, a behemoth of a TV that we took from my parents. (And when I say "behemoth" I mean it weighed somewhere around 8,000 pounds.)
We haven't ever had any sort of TV service in our home, since we've lived here (9+ years) and so, never really had any desire for a "nice" TV. Then, the area in which the behemoth TV resided started to become too much of an eyesore, DVDs strewn about, this giant, bulky beast taking up a huge space in our basement and we decided to buy something nice for ourselves. A little early Christmas present, of sorts.
The Black Friday story is, in and of itself, a story that deserves its own post, but I'll give you the punchline of that story...we got our TV. 55 glorious inches of sleek frivolousness. We even bought a beautiful new storage cabinet to pull it all together.
Fast forward approximately 25 days (the eve of Christmas Eve) and we had probably turned the TV on 5, maybe 6, times.
Back to the story above..."Mom, something hit the TV.". My body operates on a MAJOR fight or flight system...a little stress and I get all shaky. So, with my heart in my throat and my hands shaking like crazy, I went downstairs...and there it was.
On our beautiful new TV...a rainbow of vertical streaks emanating from a spiderweb in the center of it, the result of a Wii nunchuck vs. flat screen TV accident.
And that's when my tears started. Good golly, we can't have something nice in our house for even a month?! We haven't even gotten the bill for it yet!! (Yes, we charged it...unusual for us.) My stomach was in knots and I seriously thought I was going to vomit.
All the while, Dubya is nearly hysterical behind me, "I didn't mean to mom! I'm sorry! Here, take ALL of my money! (He handed me a jar of, literally, ALL his money.) Will you forgive me?".
Through my tears, I told him, yes, I will forgive him, but that at that moment, I needed to "not see him". I sent a text to the Mr., asking him to please come home, and after some back and forth, he was on his way.
Then I received a text from my mama, "Give him the best Christmas present ever, and don't be mad. It won't ever happen again.". And that made the tears even worse. Then Belle comes and quietly says, "Is this going to ruin Christmas?" and I reassured her, through my tears, that no, this was not going to ruin Christmas.
That night, as I read Caring Bridge posts, I received a reminder that a broken TV is the very least of my worries. How many people suffering this Christmas season would give ANYTHING to have their only worry be a broken TV? It was then that I decided that "Hey, what's a broken TV?", at least I have a 10 year old healthy enough to break it, and I resolved to NOT let this taint our Christmas.
I'll be honest, as long as I kept it out of my mind, I did a decent job...but my heart felt a little tight if I thought about it too much, so I just tried to keep it out of my mind.
Unfortunately for us, screen damage isn't covered by any kind of warranty and we've been told that the TV is unfixable...apparently the broken panel will cost nearly as much as a new TV. Vizio has offered us the same (albeit, refurbished) TV at the same price we got it for on Black Friday...now we just decide if that's what we want to do.
"No one is crying, hon, that's Belle singing." (She was in the shower, singing away.)
And that's when I heard it...coming up the stairs...crying. From Dubya...and stammering, "Mom, I...I didn't mean to...I..."...and I said, panic rising in my chest, "You didn't WHAT?".
Hambone, who had accompanied Dubya up the stairs said, "Mom, something hit the TV."
Now...let's back up just a sec...
For the first time ever, in our whole lives, the Mr. and I went shopping on Black Friday. There was a great deal on TVs at Sam's Club and we thought, "what the heck, let's see if we can get one". See, we've lived our entire adult lives with junk. A TV that I received for Christmas as a 16 year old served us well for about the first 8 years of our marriage. Then a hand-me-down TV from my Gram and Gramp sufficed for a couple of years, and finally, a behemoth of a TV that we took from my parents. (And when I say "behemoth" I mean it weighed somewhere around 8,000 pounds.)
We haven't ever had any sort of TV service in our home, since we've lived here (9+ years) and so, never really had any desire for a "nice" TV. Then, the area in which the behemoth TV resided started to become too much of an eyesore, DVDs strewn about, this giant, bulky beast taking up a huge space in our basement and we decided to buy something nice for ourselves. A little early Christmas present, of sorts.
The Black Friday story is, in and of itself, a story that deserves its own post, but I'll give you the punchline of that story...we got our TV. 55 glorious inches of sleek frivolousness. We even bought a beautiful new storage cabinet to pull it all together.
Fast forward approximately 25 days (the eve of Christmas Eve) and we had probably turned the TV on 5, maybe 6, times.
Back to the story above..."Mom, something hit the TV.". My body operates on a MAJOR fight or flight system...a little stress and I get all shaky. So, with my heart in my throat and my hands shaking like crazy, I went downstairs...and there it was.
On our beautiful new TV...a rainbow of vertical streaks emanating from a spiderweb in the center of it, the result of a Wii nunchuck vs. flat screen TV accident.
And that's when my tears started. Good golly, we can't have something nice in our house for even a month?! We haven't even gotten the bill for it yet!! (Yes, we charged it...unusual for us.) My stomach was in knots and I seriously thought I was going to vomit.
All the while, Dubya is nearly hysterical behind me, "I didn't mean to mom! I'm sorry! Here, take ALL of my money! (He handed me a jar of, literally, ALL his money.) Will you forgive me?".
Through my tears, I told him, yes, I will forgive him, but that at that moment, I needed to "not see him". I sent a text to the Mr., asking him to please come home, and after some back and forth, he was on his way.
Then I received a text from my mama, "Give him the best Christmas present ever, and don't be mad. It won't ever happen again.". And that made the tears even worse. Then Belle comes and quietly says, "Is this going to ruin Christmas?" and I reassured her, through my tears, that no, this was not going to ruin Christmas.
That night, as I read Caring Bridge posts, I received a reminder that a broken TV is the very least of my worries. How many people suffering this Christmas season would give ANYTHING to have their only worry be a broken TV? It was then that I decided that "Hey, what's a broken TV?", at least I have a 10 year old healthy enough to break it, and I resolved to NOT let this taint our Christmas.
I'll be honest, as long as I kept it out of my mind, I did a decent job...but my heart felt a little tight if I thought about it too much, so I just tried to keep it out of my mind.
Unfortunately for us, screen damage isn't covered by any kind of warranty and we've been told that the TV is unfixable...apparently the broken panel will cost nearly as much as a new TV. Vizio has offered us the same (albeit, refurbished) TV at the same price we got it for on Black Friday...now we just decide if that's what we want to do.
oh no!! I'd cry too! But I bet he felt so bad!
ReplyDeleteSuch a bummer! How are you feeling now? I've been waiting for something similar to happen here.
ReplyDeleteYikes! I'm constantly worried that my cat will walk behind mine and knock it down.
ReplyDeleteIt is nice of visio to offer the black Friday deal tho.