Childhood dreams...poof

So my "tween"...a child between the ages of 8 and 12 for those of you too young to have a "tween"...Madison has believed in Santa since she was little. Now, I know there are a lot of people out there who don't want their kids believing in Santa. John was one of them. I however love, no really love, no really, really, really LOVE Christmas!! And that means everything that goes with it, including Santa. Not, however, to the exclusion of Christ. He is the center of our Christmas. Always has been and always will be. But I wanted the kids to experience the fantasy that is Santa. So we have been a Santa family from the beginning. (With Santa only filling the stockings so John could get credit for the big presents...men!)

Now Madison will be 9 in March and I knew her fantasy would be ending soon, if not from the influence of older friends, from her own intellect. It happened today. Darn-it. This morning she was asking me if Santa was real. I averted her question by saying I was concentrating on my email and we'd talk later. I ran upstairs to call John almost in tears. He of course calmed me down as he always does and reasoned with me. I sighed and hung up. Then she asked nothing all day. I was so happy. Until just about 10 minutes ago. In front of Marshall. Thankfully I could honestly tell him to get to bed while Maddy and I had a "girl talk".

She said she could kind of believe that Santa was real but found it silly (her word) that reindeer could fly. Why she thought an elderly chubby man could get to almost every house in the world in one night but reindeer couldn't fly is beyond me, but there you go. So I had to tell her the truth. I couldn't lie to her. And I had never lied to her before about it either. She just never asked the right question before tonight.

She said she was a little disappointed but that it did make sense to her. She promised she would not tell the little ones. She will act her part when she opens her stocking on Christmas morning. Then she realized it was John and I who had been eating the cookies all these years and cried foul!! Of all things to make her upset. That and the reindeer food that gets kicked off the porch instead of being eaten by reindeer. She's some kid that Maddy of mine!