Yesterday, my son came back home after spending the summer with his paternal Grandparents or his Nanna and G-daddy as he calls them. I decided that I would redecorate his room and surprise him. His room was all about Thomas the train before but since turning 5, he’s been into the superheros; spider-man, batman, the transformers, ninja turtles etc. I bought him a new spider-man sheet set, as well as changed his rug and curtains. I also made him a sign at work that read “Welcome Home King Chace” to place on his door. I even took it a little further and bought red and blue balloons and decorated his room with them. I placed his superheroes on the ledge of his bed frame to greet him and wrote him a little note on his dry erase board. I was just as excited to see him as he was to see me, so I wanted to make his homecoming very special. Once we arrived home, I told him that I had a surprise for him and I had him close his eyes as I led him to his room. I opened the door and turned on the lights and I said surprise. He looked around the room with a puzzled look on his face and said “Mom, where’s the surprise?” lol. I said look up, but he was not enthused nor impressed with my decorations. I showed him the balloons and his toys and the note and he just said “oh, balloons”. It was at that moment it dawned on me that as much as the things that I had done was cool, he was just happy to be back in the comfort of his own home and to be reunited with me. That’s the beautiful, wonderful and awesomeness of kids. Us adults and parents often think that we need to make all of these elaborate gestures and buy all this stuff to make them happy, but in actuality, they just want our time and love. Our presence is the BEST present that we can give them.