Why "Santa" Isn't Coming To My House

Regular readers have probably figured out that I'm a bit messed up in a few areas of my life. Of course they all stem from my childhood, because who us comes out of adolescence unscathed in some way?
And Christmas is no exception for me.
Actually, it's not really Christmas. It's Santa.

Did the Jolly Old Elf visit your house as a child?
Yes, he was a regular at ours, each Dec. 24th. I was always
exciting because in the drafty old farmhouse we grew up in, The Big Guy had to make his entry in MY room!!! That's right! He'd have to sneak right past my sister and me sleeping, because the only intact fireplace left in the house was in our room! The other one was clogged up by the big wood stove my 'rents put in.

Talk about making it hard for a kid to sleep at night!
I thought I might actually get to sneak a peek...

Plus, everyone in the front of the school bus was all hyped up about Saint Nick's arrival and all the loot he'd be packing along.

Now, if you notice what I said (typed?), the kids in the front of the school bus knew all about Santa Claus and his dealings. That was where all the little kids sat.

However, dissidence was building in my head, because rumors were starting to trickle up from the back of the bus (aka, where the 6th graders sat) that some of this HoHoHo business might not be all it's cracked up to be...

That was really troubling to me, because:
A. As we all know: Everything you hear on the school bus is true. I think most people over the age of 30 recognize that the school bus was the major source of information and wisdom back in the day--seeing how we didn't have the Internet back then; and
B. Mom and Dad told me Father Christmas was coming.

What's a first grader to believe?
I double-checked the facts with some key influencers in my life:

• The babysitter
• Grandma
• Siblings
• Holiday TV specials
• Mom and Dad

All agreed, yes, Santa Claus was indeed coming.

All of them wouldn't be lying. Right???
I clung to the truth as a knew it, figuring there must be some mistake.

Well, sure enough, the day came one Saturday when my mom was on her every-other-Saturday shift at the hospital. (I know she was working and not home, because that was the only way I could get away with playing with her stuff.)

My sister and I were deep in a session of Dress Up and decided the perfect accessory to whatever ensemble we'd assembled would be Mom's tall, black, shiny go-go boots. (I so wish you-all could meet my mom, because you would chuckle at the thought her wearing go-go boots at some point in her life! I'm chuckling right now!)

That's why I was digging in Mom's closet that fateful day, not long before Christmas.
Total innocence was about to go down in a ball of flaming disappointment as a burning seed of distrust in all that I knew and love and valued and counted on (am I getting a bit dramatic here? Sorry.) would be destroyed by one upward glance!

I happened to look up and, right there, on the top shelf on the right, was exactly what I wanted for Christmas.

And what my brother wanted.
And my sister, too. (Littlest sister was not yet born.)

How could this be? Our entire Santa list was right there, in MOM'S CLOSET!! (Keep in mind, our gifts only came from Santa. The 'rents never claimed to give us anything back then.)

I remember running to get my siblings to show them. Maybe we could figure this out together.
I was truly, truly confused.
And I couldn't ask Mom or Dad, because I kinda, sorta shouldn't have been "borrowing" Mom's shoes. That alone would've earned me a whoopin'.

The siblings and I came up with all sorts of scenarios, like "Maybe Santa dropped them off early" or "Maybe the toys are for our cousins". Anything at all to explain that we hadn't been victims of lies. Finally, we decided to wait and see if that was really the stuff that showed up Christmas morning.

Can I just say, that this was probably the one time I was really hoping I wasn't getting what I wanted for Christmas?
I'm serious here. I really, really felt like the whole world had been lying to me.
How could I face the future knowing that the truth in life was to come from the obnoxious kids sitting in the back of bus number 3???
(Fast-forward a couple years when I started hearing about sex from my fellow bus riders... but I digress...)

Sure enough, Christmas brought exactly what was in the top of Mom's closet. And the cousins didn't get anything close to it.

Right then and there, I decided I was never going to lie to MY kids about Santa and subject them to the crushing knowledge that parents aren't always truthful.
And I haven't.
The grandparents persisted in their efforts to perpetuate this lie upon the next generation, but I felt good knowing that my kids (where were instructed to play along anytime someone brought it up, so we don't ruin the pretend fun for other kids) knew I was always honest.

And that's why "Santa" won't be visiting our house this year.
Or ever.

Five Question Friday, and a Milestone

This week's been rather busy--but I don't think that's a shocker to anybody this time of year.

So, out of just being completely brain dead, I'm sticking with Five Question Friday for my post today.


I do want to give a bloggy shout-out to KD at Life Inspired by the Wee Man, who recently signed on and noticed she was my 100th follower. I told her I at least own her some balloons or something.

Welcome aboard, KD. I hope I don't make you regret it...

I never imagined this thing would go that far.
I think LittleD thinks I'm making up fake profiles on Google and following myself.

1. Do you regift...and if so, do you have a regifting horror story?

Heck, yes! And, no, I haven't had any horror stories--or I'd probably quit doing it!

2. Do you know what you are getting for Christmas this year?

I know at least two gifts... hehehe... I bought them myself and smuggled them to the girls to wrap up.
If you had The Husband buying for you, you'd understand...

Beyond that, I have an inkling of what I'm getting... because I fed a couple suggestions to the girls and they already blabbed that I wasn't getting the practical one that I really wanted. (No shock there; The Husband is doing the buying, afterall.) And, he hasn't taken the girls to DressBarn yet (the place he goes when he can't come up with anything else), so I have a feeling I'm gettin' the goods.

3. Who brings the most gifts in your family, you or Santa?

Me, of course. If it wasn't for me and my trusty Acadia doin' all that runnin' around, that tree would be bare!!! The Husband did ask that I at least tell him what we're giving the girls before they open it. (That was after I asked if he's shopping with me or if I'm doing it alone.)
We don't do Santa.
That should be a blog post. Maybe this weekend. How I'm still scarred by the reality of Santa Claus.

4. What store do you love to by jeans from?

Any where I can find them. I recently reentered the world of jeans. I literally went years without owning a pair--out of total disgust for not finding any that: A. fit, B. didn't make my butt look like the side of a barn, and C. ***most important***I was willing to pay for.
Yes, I'm cheap. And I don't care if you know it.

Sorry, but jeans are NOT worth $100 a pair to me. Who am I kidding?? Even half of that is too much.

I actually snagged the last pair for half-price at a little boutique near here, Chez Willee.
I won.






5. Christmas meal: Big, All Out Meal or Snacks and Apps?

Usually the big meal.
This year we're goin' to my brother's family's house (pre-Christmas shout-out to the SIL, my anonymous blog stalker). I hear we're having ham. (Love ham... or any pork product for that matter.) I'm bringing cookies and a dessert.

Party Time with The Girls!

As you all know, I'm a the leader of a Girl Scout troop. My loyal band of seven had our annual after-school Christmas party this last week.

The one thing I really appreciate about our annual shin-dig is the girls always make the presents for each other in the gift exchange. We draw names and discuss the rules every year. And they always, always, always say that's the best part.

And I love to see what they come up with.
One of the things BabyD's "Secret Santa" gave her was a tree ornament made from a real tennis ball. BabyD took up tennis this year. Santa-Girl even customized it with her name.

LittleD's giver made her brownie cupcakes with pink frosting (her fav) and a bookmark with a Yellow Lab on it.

After I loaded the girls up on sugar: Cupcakes and ice cream. We got busy on our special craft project. It's really easy and might be a good service project or gift for some older folks in your life.

My Scouts love to do crafts and we got this idea from one of the moms--she's a nurse at a rehabilitation center for senior citizens. My girls wanted to do a project to serve others--something we're always talking about. She said the patients are always losing their glasses. So, we decided to make beaded neck chains for their glasses--the kind librarians are notorious for. (Sorry to stereo-type any of you would-be librarians out there! My sister is a librarian, and I haven't seen her dawn one yet.)

I actually found those little loop-ends at JoAnn's. They come 30 to a pack.

LittleD and I spent about an hour pre-cutting the string and crimping the loops on ahead of time. This helped us jump right in at our Scout meeting, since we had to eat, exchange gifts and make 30 of these before we left.

I got a good deal on assorted beads. The girls just jumped in and started stringing their own designs.

I think these came out beautiful. I sat and crimped the other end as they finished them up. We had a pretty good assembly line.
We did make some of them with plain leather cord for the men. (We didn't think 88-year-old veterans would appreciate the pink and silver beads as much.)

Check out the first batch:

Pretty cool, huh?

We have a half-day before Christmas break, so the girls and I are going to put them in cute little gift bags and hand deliver them to the patients, along with Christmas cards and maybe a carol or two. They've visited nursing homes before, and they are quite excited to go.

I love that these girls, who range in age from 10 to 13, are so willing to give of themselves and share the love of Jesus to some seniors who don't get a lot of visitors, let along gifts. They genuinely enjoy talking to these seniors and hearing stories about when they were young.
One more way that the kids remind me to be a better person.