Sunday, December 28, 2014

We Still Believe

I am fairly sure this is the final year for Ben to believe in Santa.  Once the Christmas season started the questions about Santa logistics started.

"how can Santa actually fly all over the world in one night"
"are reindeer real and do they really fly? they look like horses and horses don't fly..."
"where is our elf Jingle" (after mom totally forgot about him or better yet TRIED to forget about him after seeing every one's Elf on the Shelf posts)


Uh, after our elf Jingle made an appearance the day after school let out we found him doing really easy things like hanging out of a box of doughnuts, playing the piano, sitting in a box of cookie dough mix.  Frankly mom was happy that in the very busy end of the semester weeks leading up to Christmas that Jingle was no where to be found and the boys didn't ask until just before Christmas. Elf on the Shelf gives me severe mom guilt for all the things I'm not doing with the boys for the proverbial "holiday magic."

In hindsight on the other side of the holiday, I'm glad we said no to events and instead were really, really selective on what we did with the time we had on weekends.  I have to continually play the "good enough"card in my head and have to wonder how much of all this craziness my mom did given she was working two jobs, had a husband who worked a ridiculous amount of overtime, and had to shuttle me and Brian to church and extra curricular events solo.  I have a whole new appreciation for how she managed it all now in her shoes.



We went with our friends and their kids to the Hill Ridge Festival of Lights  over Thanksgiving weekend.  We've  always hit up Hill Ridge for their Harvest Festival and Hayride (they love some teachers with a totally free family weekend/free pumpkins in late September.)

This was the best holiday hayride, big firepits for s'mores, plus all the usual animals to visit/feed, and places to play.  They also hosted the BEST Santa I've ever seen and offered a full on lighting set up for photos, yours or theirs for super cheap purchase.



This picture KILLS me dead with 4 year old cuteness.



I remember very well finding out Santa was not real the summer before the 4th grade and recall sobbing on my bed realizing that not only was Santa not real but likely nor was the Easter bunny or the tooth fairy.  I've always thought they were the red headed step children of make believe and a real stretch anyway, but yet we keep doing them until the kids are otherwise knowledgeable.

Ian is in full on belief mode and you better believe I've worked the "Santa is watching angle
ad nauseum."

Ian told me me didn't want to write a letter to Santa so I didn't push it.  Ben wrote a long letter to Santa detailing how much he makes people happy and he wanted to thank him for being a nice guy.

Santa came and among the great items he delivered, he left me a Snoopy Snow Cone machine. Actually the  boys bought it for me after seeing it in Target with Bill.  He supposedly told them that it was one of my favorite items I got from Santa but it had long since broken and I would LOVE a new one.

As expected after looking at lights on Christmas night, I promised the boys we would try it out.... more tomorrow on the dialogue between me and the boys as they too experienced all that is disappointment from the Snoopy Cone Machine.


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