Four days to Christmas and school is out. The kids arrived home from school with enough candy to feed all the starving children in Africa. I was too tired to play sugar police and so they ate it all afternoon yesterday. Of course they were all so full of candy that none of them wanted to eat dinner. This morning I slept in and before I managed to make breakfast, they’d already dug into the remains of the stash. The result was a pile of untouched pancakes that sat on the table for hours before I cleared it away.
Fortunately the weather was beautiful today so I was able to shoo the children out into the backyard to run off their sugar buzzes. I was even able to sneak a nap on the couch while they were out. I’m still over tired from staying up too late every night for nearly two weeks. Howard and I binged on CSI every night almost as badly as the kids binged on their candy. But now the CSI is all finished and the candy is all consumed.
In theory this means a return to normality. Only we’re entering the anticipatory can’t-sleep phase of the Christmas season. Tomorrow, Friday, & Saturday all have events scheduled and Sunday is Christmas. I need to make sure everyone gets to bed on time tonight.
Wow, the big Day is coming up fast.
I remember the anticipatory can’t-sleep phase. It went away when I found out that Santa Claus was just Mom. She might have ended the deception earlier if she’d known that was the ticket 🙂
Warm thoughts and big hugs to you and yours. Merry Christmas.
I always swore that I wouldn’t deceive my son about Santa. However, I seem to have missed the boat on it; between the school and my family, he’s already firmly convinced that Santa is a real guy in the North Pole, and I can’t bring myself to burst that bubble.
To cap it off, my parents bought him the Polar Express, and my train-loving little guy is so firmly enamored that, although we’ve talked about it being “just a movie,” – again, I can’t burst the bubble. Not yet.
I didn’t have a big “aha!” moment about Santa, that I can recall. I just figured it out over time, and asked my mother. I love her answer: “Santa is alive, and real; he just wears your mother’s face. When you are grown, and have children of your own, he will wear your face, and you will do his work. As long as we give, and love, and share joy with one another, the spirit of Santa is as real as we are.”
I may be paraphrasing her a bit, but still… it worked for me, and hopefully, it will for my son, too. Someday.
The important thing with Santa is that parents teach as true only what they believe to be true. Sounds like you’ve got a good handle on it.