Saturday, December 6, 2008

Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and other fantastic people.

We are not big believers of holiday characters in our house. As with most issues, we blame our parents. My mom has a great aversion to the Jolly Old Elf, and I caught my parents filling stockings when I was about five, so not much magic there. Dh's parents outed Kris Kringle when dh and his siblings deduced that Santa and God must be one and the same; he sees what you are doing, he wants you to be good, he can be everywhere at once... So we have never encouraged our kids to believe. But that doesn't mean we don't still play the parts, our kids just know. Recently we've had some funny quotes from our kids concerning the people of traditions. Thanks to the Dutch origins of my late mother-in-law, we celebrate St. Nicholas Day on December 6 -which is today! Last night our kids set their shoes outside their bedroom doors with carrots for St. Nicholas's horse. The usual gifts for this day include some chocolate and a small toy. But I asked dh to get the kids something extra this year. At about five o'clock in the morning we heard Ds's joyous yells as he peeked out into the hall, "Its my dream! Its my dream! Fig Newtons!" We heard a similar response from dd. All it took to make her holiday was a six-pack. Of Ramen Noodles. Next there is the Tooth Fairy. I tried to be a good fairy when both the kids started losing teeth last year. We are cheap and only give them a quarter, but I type up a teeny-tiny letter in a teeny-tiny envelope just big enough for a quarter. (Thanks, Lis, for this idea!) My kids love it and dd has even started a correspondence with the Tooth Fairy. The problem is, the Tooth Fairy is SO forgetful. The last time ds lost a tooth, he reminded me about it several times during the day. He placed the tooth in a one-gallon plastic bag and put it under his pillow. He led me into his room and showed me the tooth in the bag. Then he woke up screaming at one o'clock in the morning. "The Tooth Fairy didn't come!" he wailed. I raced to his room. "Don't you need to go potty?" I innocently asked. "Yes," he answered with a glare, "Maybe the Tooth Fairy will come while I'm going potty." Last is the list for Santa. Dd kept hers simple. "I've got enough stuff. All I want is books." Excellent. Ds is another story. His original list included Legos, an I-pod, and money. But last week he thought of another item he desperately wants; duct tape. "Why do you want duct tape?" I ask. "So I can tape pillows to myself and jump off of things" he patiently explained. Of course.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love it! We've never been into the traditional holiday characters either, but we sure have fun being all secretive in our serving and giving.

Jess said...

I am with you on the holiday characters. I secretly can't wait until we can give up this scam of santa, but it is fun seeing the littlest ones still get excited.

have fun with that duct tape! Sounds like some ER visits are in your future. LOL!

Joanne said...

Mike says that he tried that jumping off things that your ds wants to do...."except we didn't have duct tape and had to hold the pillows onto our bodies...."

Thank you for that wonderful story! I have to remember that for the future. Next time we come to visit, I'll bring Ramen for dd, Newtons for ds. :)

TM CLAN said...

Your blog is so refreshing! Thank you for the great laughs. I love that ds was so thrilled for fig newtons and dd for ramen noodles. Oh the simplicities!

Company EIGHT said...

This has me laughing! I LOVE the part about the duct tape!!

Stephanie C. said...

Ha ha ha!!! Your kids are hilarious!!!

Elise said...

Oh my gosh, that is so funny!! Ramen Noodles and Fig Newtons-my your kids are easy to please!!
Oh, and your Tooth Fairy being SO forgetful, well, I would have no idea about that!!
Elise

charlotte said...

I finally bought a ribbon that said tooth fairy here or something like that and hung it on their door so the tooth fairy didn't forget to come. I like your son's idea for duct tape. I'll have to pass it on to my brother-in-law that made a wallet out of duct tape.