Falsely Accused

We have a candy thief in our house. I put all the stocking candy in the candy dish and then all of a sudden, one day I looked at the dish, and all the chocolate was gone. About 20 pieces vanished in less than a day. But who was the culprit? There were many suspects.

Suspect #1 – My husband

He does sometimes tend to indulge until whatever it is he is eating is gone. So I asked. He said it wasn’t him.

Suspect #2 – My step-dad Rick (in the red stripes)

He often indulges until whatever it is he is eating is gone. He also loves to get into our goodies when he comes over. He had been here babysitting with my mom the night before I noticed the missing candy. My kids would never eat that much that fast so I knew it must be him. I told my mom and we both went on about how he gets into this stuff but we were both still surprised that he would eat ALL our chocolate Christmas candy. So she confronted him. Wasn’t him! But before I knew it I had some other candy stashed away so I refilled the bowl so my poor children wouldn’t feel ripped off.

Suspect #3 – Mackenzie

That led us to Mackenzie. Though she’s never eaten quite that much at once, it wouldn’t be the first time she’s snuck candy or desserts up to her room. 2 years ago she snuck rice krispie treats up to her bed and ate them under her covers so no one would see her. And many times when the dish is full I can hear the lid of it clang against the sides as she tries to discretely snag a piece and then run off. She’ll even take one and turn her back to me while she eats, thinking I don’t know she’s doing it. But after some probing and the fact that she had asked me several times that day for a piece and I had actually told her it was okay, I thought then why would she be sneaking candy? I didn’t say much and decided to let it go. Until….the candy I had refilled once again disappeared! I knew I had to get to the bottom of it.

The Culprit – Kaitlyn

Now, this is very much unlike Kaitlyn. I was still thinking it was probably Mackenzie, or both, until Mike noticed a bunch of candy wrappers in the corner of our kitchen floor. Good hiding place, don’t you think? Well, Kaitlyn happened to be nearby at the time we discovered it, so he asked her if she did that. Amazingly, she fessed up and admitted it was her. I decided it must have been both of them. She even told us Mackenzie had a couple wrappers under her bed. Which was true but that’s not unusual for Mackenzie. Kaitlyn also had a few under her bed. So last night as we were getting ready for bed I told her if she keeps putting candy wrappers under there then she would get roaches all in her room. Since I knew way more pieces had been eaten than candy wrappers actually found, I then asked her where all the rest of the wrappers were so we didn’t get a house full of roaches. She led me to the playroom and started pulling out all these wrappers she had stuffed down into the couch cushions. I then asked her if there were any anywhere else. She then directed me to look under the indoor slide. I have to give her credit for at least admitting to her crime and helping me find all the trash. But she was the least suspected of the 4. I didn’t make her do any time. After all, it IS Christmas.

My mom said it reminded her of the time when I was little she found about 6 months worth of old vitamins in a drawer that I had hidden. This was before Flintstones. Those things were nasty! Who could blame me? Oh well, kids will be kids, right?