June Cleaver Nirvana

We do the Santa thing at our house. I am under no illusion that the kids completely buy-in to the story (especially Ryan at age 6). I think they go along with it because it is fun. We made the announcement this morning that we had contacted Santa for a special request. We requested an early visit tonight since blog-Stedman has to work Christmas eve and Christmas. It is not unusual for blog-Stedman to work during the holidays (the first 12 years of our marriage he worked on Christmas), but this is the first time we couldn't switch without explanation. Why does Ryan's education have to be so comprehensive? First the reading thing so adult spelling out loud is out and now this reading the calendar skill--what's next? I explained how Santa was glad to oblige and we would need to put Reindeer food out tonight so that he got the right house. Ryan's first question was "how did you contact Santa?" and I responded that when you have a baby, you get the Santa hotline number. Reid asked, "Why does Santa only eat a bite out of the cookies" we leave out for him? I explained that since Santa visits millions of houses on Christmas eve he would get too full if he ate all the cookies at every house, but tonight he has a very light schedule so he might just eat all our cookies. Reid exclaimed, "Oh I hope I can see Rudolph!" So we are going to leave the boys' shades up tonight just in case they are awake when Rudolph leads the sleigh to the rooftop.

Yesterday Ryan and Lucy (5) were having a serious discussion about Rudolph. She was skeptical and Ryan was insistent. Ryan ended the conversation when he stated, "I have a book with Rudolph in it and it is a NON-FICTION book."

This is Christmas eve at our house and the stockings are hung at the chimney with care in hopes that St. Nicholas will soon be here...