On Being Santa

The first 4 years of being Santa for the kids were easy because as smart as they are, they just weren't that with it.

It's starting to get tricky now.  They're smart, and curious, and really beginning to grasp abstract concepts.

We teach them that we believe in Jesus as the Son of God and our savior. The seem to understand that He lives both in Heaven and in our hearts even though we can't see him with our eyes.

And now we have Santa...who is NOT real, but can be seen everywhere.  It's easy to explain the "real" Santa we saw in Bronner's last weekend, but how do I explain the guy dressed in a costume waving a sale sign outside of the tire store?  And they ask how does he get in since we don't have a fireplace like we did in our old house?

And how in the WORLD am I going to explain to them someday that Jesus IS real, even though you can't see him, and Santa IS NOT real, even though you see him everywhere?  How long do you keep this up? 

Then the practical things like, WHERE do I hide the gifts?  These guys notice everything - where did the new cardboard box come from?  What's in that brown bag in your closet?  Hubs took some stuff out to the garage to keep it from little eyes but now not even I can find it...not that I'm going out there in this snow! But I'll have to wrap them soon...And WHEN will I find time to do that? I literally cannot even go to the bathroom without an audience, or at least a "Mom!! Where are you going?!"   And in a different "Santa" wrap?  Good grief!  Ain't nobody got time for that!  No lie I've spent time every night at 9:00 doing Christmas stuff....because it's not like I can wrap other people's presents in front of them, either.  Secrets are not secrets if they know.

The last time Scout was updated Dec 2012

I spent ALL MORNING opening up the Leapster Explorer GS's, installing batteries, installing the applications to my computer and uploading the games onto them.  Thank goodness C can't talk well enough to tell his brothers what was going on while they were at preschool. It took so long that I was caught in the act of updating C's Scout toy (because I might as well since now I have a new USB cord that works for it because who KNOWS where the original one went?!) when they came  home.  And that is just TWO toys!

Not to mention we still have to rectify the whole incident where the twins told Santa the things they wanted (Lego City Police Station and a "medium sized tow truck that goes grrrr").  It's been a week and they are not giving up.  Those are the only things they are asking for.   Looks like we'll be making a trip to Toys R Us after all to figure out appropriate responses to those requests.

Dec 2012...Santa was easy to explain at age 3