Cell Phone for Christmas

Kevin never loses anything, never.  It's a strange & wonderful thing about him.  So, it was surprising when he told me that he had lost his cell phone at his brothers on the afternoon of Christmas Eve.  He said, bless his heart, that they had looked for almost an hour before he came in to tell me.  He was so disappointed.

Unfortunately the kids were at their dads so we couldn't enlist them for help.  Without them, four of us walked the driveway searching in vain.  To add insult to injury, this is Washington State so there are leaves on the ground, making it impossible to find something in a black plastic case.

Luckily, Kevin has a work cell phone so he has a back-up.  Droids have back up assist so his contacts & stuff were all saved in the ether somewhere.  I called Verizon (again: let's hear it for Verizon customer service!) to see if there was any way they could pinpoint where it was.  Unfortunately, no but it was worth asking. 

On Christmas morning Kevin told the kids that if they found his cell phone, he would give them $20.  Unfortunately for Kevin, Santa had more influence than he did.

We opened gifts with six kids.  We had supervision of the boy Littles. Kevin had one and I had the other.
They were So Excited when they opened "cell phones" from their stockings!  "Look Unca Kevin! I have a cell phone!"  They were so excited and being five, they didn't understand that they were pretend.

After presents, Nephew suggested that we could find a replacement on CraigsList.  I wouldn't have ever thought of that.  We searched, Nephew made a few texts & calls and within an hour Kevin had found a phone.  They would meet in town in an hour & Kevin would have a much cooler phone than the one he had.

The kids were playing in their room with all their loot when one of the Boy Littles came out, looking downright heartbroken. "I'm sorry, Kevin."  We both panicked a little, thinking he'd done something wrong.  "Why are you sorry, buddy?" Kevin asked him.

"Well, I'm sorry because I can't call you.  This phone doesn't work. It's not real."

Kevin expressed dismay and disappointment.  "That sucks, buddy."

Boy Little replies, in the saddest tone ever "I know, right?"

Oh my God.  Our hearts broke into a million little pieces.  Kevin said it was a good thing that he didn't have his phone because he would have given him his.

It's wrong to buy a five-year-old (or three of them) a cell phone, right? Right?