If you are under the age of eight, do not read this.
Approximately 21 years ago, I was coming home from singing with the choir at Midnight Mass. This puts me in the house around 2:30 am, where I am charged with delivering Santa’s presents. This wouldn’t have been too difficult, except my husband had instituted the “Let’s-sleep-by-the-fireplace-and-catch-Santa” scheme. So he and the kids were right in front of the delivery chamber, and I was dragging gifts wrapped in crinkly paper to place ever-so-quietly around them.
Up pops my daughter, age seven. “Mom! Mom! Is that you?” Caught. “Mom, is that you? Are you Santa Claus?”
“Shhhh. We’ll talk in the morning. Go to sleep.”
Of course she remembers the highly anticipated revelation the next day and confronts me. “Mom, I saw you. Mom, are you Santa Claus?” Well, I’m not too good at lying when I don’t have a really good back-up story! I said I was, and her next question, “Does that mean you are the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, too?” Geez!
I turned and said, “Yes, but now you know what that means? It means YOU get to be the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy for your brother!” One problem solved and received with great joy. But how to be quiet from here on out?
I ran a noisy fan by the fireplace the following year so no one could hear me. S-u-c-c-e-s-s!
Ha! You handled it better than I.
Now if only my millennials didn’t believe…..
No kidding….it takes me explaining it every year to one of the two!