“S.O.S. It’s going down, she’s asking questions, HELP!”
This was pretty much the text I sent to Josh on the 6th of January 2017.
Hello again, it’s thatgirljen, aka the wife, with another guest post. This post
is about one of my many awesome parenting moments. 🙂
The kiddo has 2 very different parents. One who believes in “creating ALL the
magic” while the other is cursed with the art of nearly flawless logic.
Together, that hopefully produces a fairly balanced kiddo. Fingers crossed.
It was the night of the 3 wise men, known as Three Kings Day, also known as the
Epiphany.
It was nearing bedtime and I was getting the kiddo ready, after watching the
entire Tim Allen Santa Clause trilogy Christmas movies for the
millionth time. Yeah, I know it was a few weeks past Christmas, but the kiddo
loves Christmas movies.
Then the question, “Mom, can I ask you about the Easter Bunny? I’m confused.”
Me: “Sure, what’s up?”
Kiddo: “Well the Easter Bunny isn’t a weirdo man dressed up in a rabbit suit
like the one at the mall, and he can’t be a little furry bunny hopping house to
house, that just doesn’t make sense…”
And then the pause, followed by the look… “and it can’t be- you?”
Ugh, what to do? What to say? This was it; A major parenting moment was about
to happen!
S.O.S. aka the Secret of Santa
It’s so much more than milk and cookies…
There’s wrapping and keeping eyes and ears open for little ones that may have
gotten out of bed on the eve of Christmas. Josh’s the one that picks out all the
right toys and cool stuff, I find all the things that the kiddo didn’t know was
even a thought on the list, and yet are a totally great surprise.
Josh does do a great job taking care of those cookies though 😉
As a mom, over the years, I did a fairly respectable job with infusing Christmas
with magic. Nothing too over the top, just the usual mom kind of stuff. For
example: I used to sleep on the sofa in an attempt to catch Santa coming down
the chimney, and make sure no one got out of bed too early!
One year Santa left a “special jingle bell” behind next to the fire place, much
like the jingle bell from the movie the Polar Express. Another year I
actually caught Santa and took a photo of him getting ready to go up the
fireplace and chimney… #photoshop
Right down to the yearly letters from Santa, special “Santa-only tags and paper”
and a lot of extra help from our Elf on the Shelf, Rosie. I think the
kiddo was around age 5 when we got Rosie. That little elf came into our lives,
wrote special swirly lettered notes back and forth on tiny scrolled paper.
Her first year with us, as the kiddo’s special Elf sent straight from the
red suited man himself, Rosie managed to source a special antique doll case from
Santa’s special workshop, and filled it with amazing stuff from American Girl.
By the third year with us, our Rosie fell in love with a Jiminey Cricket Beanie
Baby. They even went on dates in the Barbie town-house.
After a season of romance Rosie and Jiminey went back to the North Pole to ask
Santa for his blessing, came back the following year married and Jiminey had a
new Christmas hat straight from Santa. Now the kiddo was writing notes, asking
about if they will have children any time soon?
Picture me, going to the store the following year, sourcing not one but 2
smaller very cool antique cherub elf-looking dolls to further perpetuate the
Christmas magic!
And then… thankfully… there was my wingman Josh- talking some much needed
sense into me, reminding me that adding to it, will prolong all this and then
the inevitable. The kiddo was going to be 10 soon. I begrudgingly returned both
of the cool cherub “baby” elves later that week.
Little did I know, that the S.O.S. would soon be less a mystery.
OK so- back to the conversation with the kiddo:
Me: “Well what do you think?”
Kiddo: “It can’t be you?”
Me: “Well?”
Kiddo: “Oh wait, and Santa?”
Cue the tears.
Then the startling realization in a very nearly sarcastic teenage voice… “and
you’re the tooth fairy too, right? Please tell me you didn’t save all my teeth.”
To which I give the only response a really awesome mom can give:
“Wanna see them?”
Now the kiddo is angry, mad, sad, upset- let’s just say it was like a 12-step
program or steps of grief to be encountered and processed, ALL. AT. ONCE.
So all this happened in about a span of 5 minutes. By this time Josh had
finished up working and had come downstairs from his office, after reading my
text. The kiddo leapt off the sofa and went straight to daddy, clearly I was the
bad guy here after navigating this bit of news, and he was the one to save the
day.
For the next half hour or so they sat together on the sofa, in a teary silence,
until it was time for bed.
Over the next couple of days, the transformation began. The kiddo got to hold
Rosie the Elf. No kitchen thongs would now be needed to pick her up or move her
for fear of losing her Christmas magic.
We got to share all the crazy “behind the scenes” stories of what actually
happens to make Christmas, Easter and yes even the tooth fairy.
Our Christmas secret shopping, building and wrapping stories. Mailing stuff to
the neighbor’s house so certain packages wouldn’t be seen on the doorstep.
Hiding Easter eggs in shifts while “taking the dogs outside”.
I even demonstrated how Santa, Rosie and yes the Easter Bunny wrote their notes-
the Easter Bunny writes like a 5 year old because bunnies can’t hold pens, no
thumbs! And our tag-team style tooth stealing after midnight. It really IS all
about teamwork.
So many dots were connected. But still many new questions, “But how did the
Easter Bunny still write a letter, even though you were out of town?” By this
point, she knew Josh didn’t do the actual letters and writing, that was all me.
“Planning kiddo, teamwork and planning. Daddy and I make a pretty good team,
don’t you think?”
“WOW, you guys really did a LOT for me!” There were a lot of laughs, less tears,
and more importantly, a brand new appreciation.
Now, the kiddo has taken on the role of Santa at the house. Our stockings are
filled, and when WE wake up in the morning WE’RE more excited on Christmas
morning. It’s created a new tradition and the kiddo gets to join in the Santa
festivities. We all have a gift or two from Santa under the tree, and they’re
usually all quite a surprise- which takes a new kind of teamwork!
You gotta believe to receive, so although we may know about the S.O.S. we
still… BELIEVE.
With that, have a Merry Christmas everyone.
