Santa and the Russian Jetliner

Apparently it's a parenting faux pas to tell your children Santa may have died aboard the Russian airliner that was recently shot down.

Yes, it's true - I did say this. 

But in my defense, I was joking with them that Santa wasn't coming this year. They knew I was joking - or at least I THOUGHT they knew. But when they asked why he may not be coming to town, I took the opportunity to thread in current events they may have recently heard on the radio. Apparently that made it waaaayyyyy more believable because the atmosphere went from light-hearted and kidding to a full-on hush in the car for several seconds. Aaaand I let it linger maybe a bit too long, at which point Cat broke it up by pinching my arm and saying, "Papa!" in a low, teasing rebuke.

This joke was taken a bit too literally by our little guy as he apparently chewed on it for several days before deciding it must be true. Then, when attending a play where there was a Santa letter writing station and mailbox, he looked to us in confusion, thinking it a futile effort to write a letter to a dead magical man. So I took a moment to tell him I was just joking and it was OK to write a letter to Santa. After all, the magic resides in our hearts, not in some fat old guy that breaks into houses at one night a year and watches you the other 364 days. But I digress.

After some thought, LJ decided it couldn't hurt to write a letter to Santa, even if he wasn't convinced the old guy was still alive. So he did. And we moved on.

What really brought LJ back to confusion (er, believing) was when a package addressed to LJ arrived a few days later in the mail...a package from Santa (who apparently resides in Florida?! this time of year; who knew?!). In it, was a personal note from Santa assuring him that he was indeed alive and well, had been watching him and knew he'd been pretty good throughout the year (yes, Facebook stalking does exist), and would be delivering presents to him and his friends this Christmas.

Thanks for keeping him in the magic, mom! *she had the package sent*

So now we await Santa's arrival tonight. And we'll be checking the official NORAD Santa Tacker (http://www.noradsanta.org/). Currently he appears to be somewhere over Izmir, Turkey and has delivered close to 3 billion (yes, BILLION) presents! Consumerism appears to be alive and well!

Time to go caroling!

Merry Christmas, y'all!