To Continue a Theme

Tonight at my sister's house, Satchel sauntered over to me and said, "Thanks for the Tomagotchi, Mommy."

"Don't thank me, thank Santa," I replied.

"Santa is you," he said casually and walked away.

I sat silently wondering what to do. He didn't seem upset. He'd been a little suspicious already. "You wrote those notes from Santa," he said in the car on the way over."

They were written on reddish pink paper, leftover from one of my zines. Satchel is very familiar with the contents of my leftover paper stack as he pilfers from it almost daily in his artistic pursuits.

"Of course Santa used our paper," Warren explained. "He even used our pen. But that wasn't Daddy's handwriting was it?" he continued, hoping to cast some doubt into Satchel's mind.

"No," Satchel replied, seemingly re-convinced.

Satche's no dummy. At age three he knew that Spider-Man was really Daddy, thanks to his hairy feet.

I debated whether or not I should press the issue. Satchel's cousin, Sutton, age 8, has been hell-bent on demystifying Santa since our gathering yesterday.

I went over to my mom and relayed the conversation. "Did Sutton tell Jiro, too?" she asked.

I thought about that. "I'm not sure Jiro really grasps the Santa concept in the first place," I replied.

Is it really that bad if they don't believe? The only thing Santa was good for was eliciting good behavior and we've totally worn that out.

I took a deep breath and told Warren the story next.

"WHERE IS THAT SUTTON?" he demanded.

Uh-oh.

I tried to intervene. "Sutton, stop teasing Satchel about Santa," I said. "We all know he is real (wink-wink)." (Clearly my threats the night before were useless.)

Warren stepped in with the "Santa only brings you gifts if you believe" speech.

Even now as Warren is tucking the monkeys in, I can hear him reiterating the realness of the man in red. I'm pretty sure Satchel knows the truth, but he's going to play along because he loves his Daddy.

And that's pretty much why I am too.