The Name Game ... literally

Hello dear Bleeps...after the on-slaught of posts last week from me, I figured we all needed a little break.  But now I have more fun stories to tell, so I can't hold my tongue any longer.

Ever since Thanksgiving, both sets of parents have been hounding us about Baby Girl's name.  It's in almost every phone call from my mother-in-law (MIL) as she slips in "and the baby's name is what again?"  Or the emails from my Dad reminding me what time we are having dinner on Christmas saying "what was the baby's name?" They think they are so sneaky, but we never gave in because we had a surprise in store.

After we were sure we were happy with the name we had picked out for Baby Girl and based on the fact that J's parents said we shouldn't spend money on them for Christmas because every dime we had should be going towards the baby, we decided our big present to them both this year would be to give them Baby Girl's name.  But it wouldn't be given, they'd have to earn it.  (We sound like parents already huh?!)  I used some scrapbook paper and made 3 game sheets - 1 for our keeping, 1 for my parents and 1 for J's parents.  The sheet said at the top, "If you want to know your granddaughter's name, you have to figure it out.  Open presents to find pieces to spell it out.  Good luck and Merry Christmas!"  Then further down it said, "Baby Girl Rowe's name will be..." and three lines about the size of each of her 3 names.  Then at the bottom it said, "So now you know, but we'd still like to keep it a secret from the masses."

I wrapped that up in a big box and then cut up the three names into two or three letter pieces and put them into different presents, or just empty boxes and wrapped those up.  We had Christmas Eve with my parents so they got to go first.  The first gift they opened was the big paper with the game on it.  As my Mom figured out what was going on, her eyes began to twinkle...she LOVES puzzles.  So then they started to unwrap other presents and find letters.  It was absolutely hysterical watching them try to figure out the names.  They got the middle name right away, but the first name gave them trouble.  The last name of course was easy, but it threw some wrenches in there because there were extra letters they weren't expecting I think.  Anyway, once it was all said and done they loved the name we picked out and the way we let them figure it out.  But they still can't tell anyone!!!

Christmas Day we drove to Mesa (about 2 hours away from our home) to spend Christmas with J's parents, sister and her boyfriend, and his grandparents on his Mom's side.  We got there before everyone so started the gift giving before the rest of the family showed up.  First, I gave Debbie the Christmas bulb I made her (I make bulbs every year fro loved ones with events we shared together during the year written on them) and what popped out of her mouth? "Where's the baby's name?!"  So I knew we needed to get the game going because I didn't think we could handle a full day with the family and the pestering of these questions.  So we went and got the presents and they protested seeing about 10 boxes from us, but we asked them to open the big one first and then see if they wanted to protest further.  Here comes the placard with the name game rules and then they understood and started tearing through presents.  They would literally open a present, look for letters, and if it was an actual present, throw it over their shoulders to add the letters enclosed to figure out more of the name.  They too figured out the middle name first, and then moved on to the first name...completely forgot that the last name was in there too so got a little confused with the extra letters, but eventually figured it out.  They too liked the name we had chosen and the way we presented it to them.

But the funniest thing may have happened later in the day.  After the rest of the family had arrived and we had settled down for dinner, J's Uncle called to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.  J's Dad told him that we had gifted the name to them for Christmas and let J reveal the name.  Well, he popped out the WRONG first name.  He said as soon as it left his lips he knew it was wrong, but he had just heard it on the radio that had been playing!  He turned red, corrected himself and said the correct full name.  J's Uncle was very pleased to hear it too.  The right one that is!

Now I would love to reveal it to you folks too but I just can't.  The family knows, and they are pretty much all who know.  I will leave you with initials though...R.J.R.  But I won't answer questions about if you are right in your guessing or not. 

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas (if you celebrate it) and a little R & R along the way too!  And on Christmas Day we hit our 6-month mark!  Amazing!