As my daughter gets older with each passing Christmas, I reminisce about the days when she did believe that all the presents under the tree were from Santa. I would sneak home and wrap the presents that Santa brought in special Santa wrapping paper and place them under the tree on Christmas Eve, so that the next day when she came down stairs, there would be twice the gifts because Santa had made his visit. The look of surprise and awe was always so thrilling. She's twelve now and knows there's no Santa, because mommy and daddy are Santa, she tells me. Apparently she has known this for some time now, because, as she said, one time she found the Santa wrapping paper in the garage. Just like the time she knew there was no Tooth Fairy, when I tried to put a dollar in her pillow as I kissed her goodnight, when 5 minutes later she yelled, "Mom, I found the money you put in my pillow"! Damn, and I thought I was being sneaky! It's goodbye to those innocent fairy tale days, gone are the toys from Santa, replaced by electronics from Mom and Dad. Why it seems just like yesterday, when she was 5 and her school took her class on a field trip to the 99 cent store, where each kid got $2.00 to spend anyway they liked. She stood in line and when her friend asked her what she was buying, she held up her hand and showed two boxes of scotch tape. Why are you buying that? her friend asked, with boxes of candy in her hand. "Because my mom likes to tape things" my daughter replies, "So I'm buying her tape". Now that's, sigh is priceless!
