Wait, what did you think I meant?
Anyway, way back in August, the topic came up again, and I kind of knew this was my chance. After all, we were far enough away from Christmas that he didn't have all of the pent-up nervous energy that begins to build about the end of October as we head into Halloween and strengthens uninterrupted as we go through his birthday, Thanksgiving, Pink P's birthday, and Christmas in quick succession. Invariably, things fall apart for him during that seven-week period, so revealing such big news then wouldn't go well. Plus, I've made it a practice to avoid lying to them about the whole Santa thing, and that's much harder to pull off the more sophisticated their thinking becomes. I didn't know how I was going to get through this Christmas season with Sky without having to do some blatant fib telling.
So, when he looked me in the eye and asked me again whether Santa was real, I closed the door and told him the the whole story. I told him that Daddy and I believe in the spirit of Christmas and want to help them believe in it, too, so that's why we talk about Santa. I asked him to help me keep the magic alive for his sister and brother. He immediately outlined his plans for helping me wrap presents and putting together any toys that need to be built at the last minute.
By far the sweetest, most awesome moment came right after I confirmed his suspicions about Santa. He paused to think and then said, "So you mean YOU got me the Kindle Fire? Thank you sooo much." Then he gave me a huge hug.
And, you know what? He's a lot mellower this year. I think the constant fear that he would end up on the naughty list was just too much for him (remember this post?). He's also been great at keeping the secret from Stow and Pink. In fact, tonight, when I wanted to tell Pink that those ridiculous shelf elves are just a convoluted way to force kids to behave while weaving an impenetrable web of lies, he interrupted me in Japanese and told me I'd better not. Good thing Pink can't spell or speak Japanese well. Next year it will be harder.
*****
In other news, we survived our first Thanksgiving dinner at home. Normally, we are visiting family or in Japan. But this year, since Ren is barely walking, we stayed home. Big Sissy came with a friend, so I felt some pressure to do something resembling a feast. I honestly considered serving pizza for longer than I should admit. None of us like turkey and since most of us don't have a cultural predisposition that insists we eat it on the fourth Thursday in November, we had ham. Ham, tater tots, gluten-free spinach souffle, salad, green beans, and gluten-free brownies. The tater tots were my solution to Sky's new-found aversion to mashed potatoes that resulted from consuming large quantities of them last Thanksgiving and then immediately coming down with a nasty stomach bug. Besides the amazing (and by "amazing" I mean, "I'm amazed I didn't serve pizza") feast, there were also some decorations and even fancy napkins. Next year I'm thinking about breaking out the good dishes--you know, the ones we got for our wedding 14 years ago and have never, ever used. We left for Japan two days after our wedding and subsequently moved a gajillion times. Now that we're finally settled, it might be time to get them out of storage at my parents' house. Given the fact I managed to pull off a meal this Thanksgiving, nice dishes are not out of the realm of possibility for next year.
The day after Thanksgiving, I accidentally went to Kohls and ended up waiting in line for forty minutes. I can't explain it other than to say I don't get a lot of time to shop, so it seemed like a good idea at the time. Before Big Sissy left, I made her help me get all the Christmas stuff out, so now each morning starts with Stow dancing to the various animated singing toys we've accumulated over the years. I've become wholly incapable of writing a coherent post, so I'll distract you with this video of Stow dancing and maybe you won't notice there's no conclusion to this post.
No comments:
Post a Comment