As spring draws thankfully near, Reina’s birthday is also fast approaching, and this year I’ve been tasked with organizing the goodie bags. Seriously, do we need goodie bags? As I pondered this, I tried to locate the origins of this tradition and found it would take more digging than I had time for as there are similar traditions of small gifts for partygoers in numerous cultures around the world. Whereas children may momentarily relish tearing into a goodie bag to discover the small gems (or duds) inside, I can assure you that celebrities still get the best goodie bags. Trust me, I once got a goodie bag with an entire big bar of chocolate inside, and not that weak milk chocolate stuff, this was scrumptious dark chocolate.
My fame aside, what I did discover in my hasty research of G-Bags, as I imagine industry insiders refer to them, is that some parents go over the top – way over the top. Just take a look at what Kelly did for her 5 year-old here. Armed with doughnut boxes and a local novelty store, Kelly loaded up enough items in her G-Boxes that I was upset I didn’t get invited to the party. Fortunately, Reina’s mates tend not to surf the Internet, so I’ll be keeping things fairly simple in the vain hope that we parents do not get trapped in the vicious cycle of one-upmanship until the day arrives when Reina has her sweet sixteen and I’ve got to shell out for a dozen new Smart Cars to go inside custom-made LV bags (I’ll get some nice knockoffs made to lower the cost), along with actually diamond–encrusted tiaras, and the latest iTeleporter from Apple. Sigh, being the Baba in the family is very stressful.
Hey look, dark chocolate!
