Meeting Santa

This is the first year that Ellie has really understood the concept of Christmas and Santa Claus. We took her to the mall to meet Santa on Saturday, and for the first time ever, she actually spoke to him. He asked what she wanted, and she said, "A Dora book and a Froggy book." Santa said that books were always a good choice, then asked, "Anything else?" and she answered, "No." Since this might have been the shortest Christmas list he'd heard all day, Santa went on to ask her if she would leave out some cookies for him on Christmas Eve. Ellie replied, "Yes," so he asked what kind of cookies they'd be. Without missing a beat, she said, "Chocolate!" He told her that that was a good choice, too.

A few days later, Ellie's preschool held its Christmas party, and Santa paid a visit. Her teachers told us they were surprised that the slow-to-warm-up Ellie walked right up to Santa and told him what she wanted, then wished him a Merry Christmas. I later inquired what she asked Santa for this time, and she told me, "Cookies!" Sharp kid - asking one Santa for the cookies that the first Santa wanted!

Her sharp eyes have made Christmas preparations more complex, however. By total coincidence, I wrapped a bunch of her "Santa" gifts in one type of paper, and gifts for other in a different paper. When she arrived home from preschool, Ellie examined all the presents under the tree very carefully, and then announced "Santa has snowman paper! Mommy has gold paper with berries on it. But Mommy and Santa have the same bows. Some are red and some are green." I had never considered the notion that I'd have to use a different set of giftwrap, bows, and gift tags for the gifts from Santa. I promptly moved to hide the "Santa" wrapping paper and gift tags, and warned my husband and in-laws. And we're going with the story that Santa makes the gift bows for Target, where Mommy shops, so that he can get some reindeer food in exchange.