Santa Had An Accident

I pulled another Christmas off. And contrary to my gut feeling, I did not get busted setting up the train set and delivering presents. Phew! I can breathe again. :)

Last night I put the kid to bed around 10pm, hoping she'd be out like a light. At 11:30pm she was still awake yelling from the bedroom, "Mom, track Santa, where is he now?" Finally I told her he was in NYC and she asked how far away that was. I told her he'd be here within the hour, but if he knew she was awake he was likely to skip over the house. Even that didn't deter her excitement, however my excitement was very quickly fading the later it got. I'm definitely not a night person. Needless to say, I started her CD player and told her I was closing her door to try to trick Santa into thinking she was asleep. I instructed her that she was not to open the door and come out at all or she may end up with coal. Thank God I have a kid that is a good listener!

I went into the storage closet on the patio and brought out the presents and set up the train set, the footprints, wrote a quick note from Santa, rolled her hat in ash, and then went to bed for the evening. It was past midnight by then and then guess who couldn't sleep? Isn't that like Murphey's Law or something???? Ugh!

This morning the kid woke up and snuggled, not exactly for a kid on Christmas morning, right? I was expecting a jump on the bed and a "can we go get the presents?" But instead she curled up with me for about 1/2 hour and then asked if I could go see if Santa came. I quick went out and plugged in the tree and made the appropriate scene about what a mess Santa made.

The kid came out and saw the baby powder footprints (FYI...not easy to vaccum up) and I told her, "I can't believe what a mess Santa made, OMG!" The kid says, "But Mom, it was just an accident. Santa just made an accident!"

She opened her presents and Christmas was over in five minutes and eight seconds.

Well, it's just us. No family around....so how did we spend the rest of the day? At the Chinese buffet, making puppet stages, renting movies and making dance movies dressed up as Shakira. Just another regular day, right? While we had a great day and can hold our own, there is a part of me that feels insanely guilty that we don't have a family around and it's just us. I want more for her, I have this romantic idea of being part of one of those big movie families...I guess that's why it's called Hollywood?

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Today I am grateful for my daughter, childhood innocence and beliefs, and my bed!