Back to the REAL reason for the season......

For the last several years, I have been part of the ranks of parents sneaking around the house when the children were in bed on Christmas Eve, removing at least half of the cookies from the plate and drinking the milk left for our red-suited, white-bearded friend, and making sure that the display of presents left from his bag looked well thought out but not too much so. We tracked Santa online on Norad, and I even went the extra steps to have mail delivered from the North Pole, and uploaded pictures of our living room with presents to a website where you could have Santa "photoshopped" into your home, leaning over his creation, or looking surprised when he was caught red-handed.

This last year, I somewhat suspected that it could be our last to participate in this commercialization of Christmas...Zoe is a very strategical thinker, and had begun asking questions several years ago that showed she was having a difficult time fathoming how Santa got the whole thing done, but of course she still wanted to believe, so she did. However, I was still caught off guard at how the whole thing went down yesterday, in anticipation of a visit from the Easter Bunny...

Z: "Mom, is the Easter Bunny real?"

E: "Well, sweetie, what do you think?"

Z: "Is it a person?"

E: "What do you think?"

We continued with this conversation, going down several paths, until she came to the conclusion that no, she did not think the Easter Bunny was real, at which time we confirmed for her that she was correct. I then asked my husband if he thought we should continue the dialogue, of course referring to debunking the myth of the Easter Bunny's Christmas counterpart. He felt as though we should at least wait until after dinner...for some reason he doubted her ability to handle such news. I of course assured him that she would not only take it in stride, but would most likely not be surprised...and of course I do love being right! :-)

He proceeded to ask her what she thought of Santa, and did she think he was real also? She immediately said that she did not...when I asked her when she figured it out, she said "two minutes ago when you told me the Easter Bunny was you".. :-)

Only a few seconds later the Tooth Fairy was outed as well....

To tell you the truth, I am a bit relieved. While I don't see any reason for a three or four year old not to be completely taken in by the magic of Easter egg hunts or shiny new bikes under the tree that were delivered by a rather large man brought to our home by reindeer, I am of the opinion that my daughter is old enough now to truly focus on the true meaning of these special times of the year. Of course there will still be presents ;-), and we will still look forward to Thanksgiving Day when the decorations can come out of the attic. And I know that she will still have a blast hunting eggs. But now our bunny friend and Santa Claus will no longer be distractions. Since she was old enough to understand, she has known that Christmas was about the birth of our Savior...but for a small child who loves toys as much as the next one, the Santa factor was still pretty huge. Easter Bunny? Not quite so much..but it was still there..just one more thing to take away from the true miracle that we have been given.

So now...we can get back to the REAL reason for the season...

Happy Resurrection Day to all!