Finally!

Well. It is about time that I said something controversial to get you people fired up and commenting! Considering that I can't go 5 minutes in real conversation without saying something stupid, offending someone, or pissing someone off, I find it nearly miraculous that this blog has gone on (and on and on - did I tell you that printing it in an 8 x 10 book format would be over 300 pages? Yeah, so much for archiving ye ol' blog. I'll just rely on Google to continue to exist) for almost 8 months without any major controversy. I know it's a record for me. I'm sure it's also a record for blogs, in general.

This is really a non-issue this year. Like I said, MG is terrified of Santa. It's really going to be an issue next year, when she's old enough to understand and (maybe) not be terrified.

You've given me a lot to think about. Do young kids believe in Mickey Mouse in the same way that we want them to believe in Santa? Would telling them the truth - that he's a fictional character - mean that they'd enjoy Disneyworld any less? This is a serious question - I honestly don't know the answer. For all that MG is extremely verbal, she hasn't demonstrated any awareness, yet, of the difference between real and make-believe. I've seen her try to hand toys to Charlie and Lola on the TV. It probably doesn't help that our TV is huge, so C & L appear life sized (BJ has rigged up a projector, so it's a 109" diagonal).

How do you reconcile that with, say, scary things that they see in movies or on TV? If they accidentally come in during The Exorcist or something, and you say, "Oh, honey, it's not real..." do they then have some kind of existential crisis, realizing that all of their beloved fictional characters are, therefore, also not real? Or am I thinking about this like a 31 year old, and not like a 2 or 3 year old? Maybe little kids just accept that Regan isn't real, without considering the implications for Mickey and Lola.

Susan (my Bonus Mom) called me and told me that she'd always felt dishonest with the whole Santa thing, and that she wishes she hadn't done it. So, here I thought, since she was first to reply, that everyone was going to be all "good for you!" etc. Hahaha...

It would be very silly to make them sit on the steps while we say, "It's very interesting down here..." (a tradition that goes back generations in my family, and is the whole point of living in a two story house!) if we don't do Santa. It would also be difficult to explain stockings, which are one of my favorite parts of The Big Day.

As far as traditions go, we're planning on doing a gingerbread house on Christmas Eve, having a fire in the fireplace, listening to carols, and reading "The Grinch" or "The Night Before Christmas," or some other appropriately themed book. We'll open one present that night (new jammies, of course). We'll probably have a special meal, too. Maybe turkey, although BJ and I haven't quite decided yet. Then we'll get up on Christmas morning and open presents and eat breakfast, and then head up to Grammaland.

Last year I tried to do reindeer food and stuff with BJ's niece and nephew (4 and 2 at the time) when we were at his mom's, and they were not impressed. Maybe it's different when it's your own kids in your own house, or maybe it's different when it's not your crazy aunt who you (essentially) just met two days ago trying to run the show. I know one year, my cousin Bridget freaked right out when her uncles went outside and shook sleigh bells - she thought Santa would skip her house because she wasn't at home asleep.

Well, we'll see. Like I said, we still have a little over a year (maybe more) to decide. Right now, my house is a mess and my kids are needing a nap, so I need to think of other, less weighty, things.

In other news, how cute are we???



You can't see it in this picture, but my shoes and BJ's tie are the same plaid as the girls' dresses. This was at Mom's Christmas open house last night at her business. One guy saw us taking these pictures, and he thought that Mom had hired us to stand there and look perfect as an advertisement of some sort. Ha!