Yes, Stella, there is a Santa Claus and he is on the Big Island right now

It felt wrong at first, because I remember how when I found out the "truth," I was devastated. I couldn't trust or believe for a long time afterwards. I think it marked the beginning of my distaste for authority and my eventual slippery slope of a slide into Doctorate of Jurisprudence.

Me (in 1983): "wait, so there is no Santa Claus? So what about the Easter Bunny, is he fake too? And the tooth fairy? That is a lie. So you lied. You are a liar. And I guess God is a lie too?"

But here I was doing it, and after a few days, it just got really easy, so it was no problem, it was effortless, in fact, when the subject came up last week....

Santa Claus? Oh, well, he is on vacation. You see, he is so tired after Christmas, that he pretty much just takes the month of January off. No one really know where he goes, but TMZ got some pictures of who they thought was him and Mrs. Claus in Hawaii, and it probably was them, they were at a pretty exclusive place, which makes sense because it is a nice time of year there and you know, the North pole is so cold, then he comes back in February and he spends most of that time doing R and D for next Christmas, just checking out trends and projections, and then in March they start to gear up again, figure out where the sales are....

Vacation was all she heard. The rest was just me talking to myself. Santa Claus in on vacation. So was Uncle Gene. So whenever we drive past the one or two hold outs who have not taken down their Christmas decorations, Annabelle says "Santa on 'cation. Uncle Gene on 'cation too."

I guess it is pretty confusing to a little one, because since October, he has been all over the place, and then, pretty much on December 26, he is gone. No more Santa doll at Kroger, no more lights or decorations, no more trips to the mall /gazebo park/HEB and we just happen to run into him. It is hard to understand why we don't sing the Santa and baby Jesus songs any more and hard to understand why baby Jesus is no longer at the Church, especially when one or two losers won't take down their decorations and keep confusing the matter.

getting back to 1983-----why couldn't he have been real?

what almost 2 year olds dream about.....

Yesterday morning, as is his custom, Hyphen asked Annabelle how she slept. It went like this:

H: how did you sleep last night annabelle?

Annabelle: goooooooood.

H: did you have sweet dreams?

Annabelle: yeeeeeessss.

H: you did? What did you dream about?

Annabelle: caaaaaaats

H: Cats? what else did you dream about?

Annabelle: lollipops.

H: Lollipops? what else?

Annabelle: dooooooogs.


we should all be so lucky. She is the best thing we have ever done.

cousins coming soon

Annabelle has certain understanding of cousins. She knows that she has two cousins, M____ and A_____ who live in Dallas with their Uncle M______(who is her new boyfriend) and their mom T_______, who, like most moms, is superfluous. She also knows that there are babies in Auntie's tummy. Since my sister's delicate condition has been progressing for 35 weeks now and since there will soon be invaders in the world of Ga-ma and Gand-pa, I decided to talk up her new cousins today. I explained to her that she will be the big cousin, kind of like a big sister and she will have to show them things, like how to eat and how to walk. Annabelle immediatley got the teaching concept and chimed in "Bus song?" Yes, you can teach them "The Wheels on the Bus." She then said "play leggoes?" Yes, you can show them how to play leggoes. Her suggestions went on for a while, and all included things Annabelle absolutely loves doing and she got progrssively more excited about showing her cousins her world. During supper I questioned her in front of Hyphen about her cousins. Here is a summary of our conversation:

1. Annabelle's cousins are "coming soon."
2. The cousins are in "Auntie's tummy."
3. Santa Claus is bringing them.
4. Annabelle will play leggoes with them.
5. Annabelle will give them a lollipop.
6. Annabelle will eat candy with them.

and most importantly,

7. "driver bus move on back all the town!!!!!!!!!"

She just added this last part, but, she pretty much screamed it, so I figured it was central to our converation.

what my mom is worried about today

My mom saw something on tv today that made her worry that someone will see annabelle, see how pretty she is, become insanley angry about her beauty and throw acid, hot coffee or boiling water on her face and she told me to watch out for people carrying containers or to-go cups and not to let them near annabelle.

I wish I was making this up sometimes.