To Be or Not To Be

I attended YS’s class Christmas party at school. I’ve been to many of these over the year. I kept saying to myself that someday I’ll be done. I’ll never have to do another one of these and then I realized that I only have 2 more. YS will be in middle school – and they don’t have parties in that school..
Anywho, this party was well organized and went as smooth as butter! The kids cooperated nicely and were very well mannered.
My job was to take Polaroid pictures of each kid standing next to Santa and then the kids decorated greeting cards (that the pictures went into) while they waited for the pictures to develop. One boy told me that he had seen a camera like the one I had in a really, really, really old movie that him and his mom watched. He thought his mom told him that the movie was made in the 80’s. It was time to change the subject.
The party was moving along and all the kids and I got into quite the discussion on whether or not Santa really exists. There was a wide gambit of opinions, and feelings ran high on this subject. Very passionate these kids were, on both sides of the “issue” and the whole time I was thinking “gee – wouldn’t it be nice if this was your only concern in life!” I did have to step in once and remind them that everyone has an opinion and everyone has a right to that opinion and that kept things under semi-control.
It got me to thinking of when we were kids and the lengths that my parents went to in order for us kids “to believe”. I remember one year – and I was about YS’s age, when the thought of just who Santa really is and does he really exist was a troublesome question for me. We went to midnight mass and when we got home our presents from Santa were all laid out. Now both of our parents attended church with us – all four of us kids kept on eye on them! So if it was dad and it wasn’t mother…who was it? Well it just HAD to be Santa! My beliefs were good for another two years! Seriously though, my parents did go to a lot of trouble for all of us. Christmas was a magical day for us. I hope my kids look back on their childhood Christmas memories just as fondly as I do.


May each of you have a safe and wonderous holiday season! Spend your time with those you love, think of those you can't be with, and have a hug on me!

Merry Christmas!!!