There's a lot to ponder in those two sentences. First is the Santa Claus issue. I wish we'd tackled Santa like other animated figures. They are cute, fun to pretend with and about, but definitely not real. But we didn't. Our kids believe that Santa is a real and fantastic being. So my best answer, for Lee, to the question was that if you believe Santa puts toys in your stocking and you wake up Christmas morning to find toys actually in your stocking then most likely Santa put them there. How was that? Am I causing psychological trauma? I hope not! Next is the dead or alive part. Indeed there was a real St. Nicholas and he was known to throw sacks of coins to the poor children. He was alive and did in fact die a real long time ago. But 1989? Come on, that wasn't that long ago. Once I explained that I was 17 years young, a teenager, in 1989, Lee decided that wasn't that long ago after all.
Then, later in the day Lou begged to make graham cracker gingerbread houses. In July? It must be the soaring temperatures are making us all wish for cooler weather, but not quite like December. Today it's 89 degrees F. Mid 90's are forecasted for this weekend. So I obliged and out came the graham crackers, frosting and sprinkles. And when it was all done we sat down for a very tasty snack of walls, sidewalks, fences and chimneys.
