For me, it's about To Do lists. For Mr3 it's about logistics. Where will Santa park his reindeer (there's no point in being on the roof when the Fibro has no chimney)? How does he fit the world's presents on his sleigh? Can we wait up to see him?
"We don't have to," says Mr6, matter of fact. "Daddy will meet him at the door so he can hand over the presents." Mr6 has always been very keen that a strange old man in a red suit should not be entering the house under cover of darkness. The presents, yes. The man, no.
"Well, I can wait with him," says Mr3, who's desperate to lay eyes on said man.
"I don't think he'll come if you're there," I say.
He thinks.
"I can hide behind Dad. He won't even know I'm there."
He's a wily one, that Mr3. I envisage a long battle on Christmas Eve to get him to close his eyes. And even then, it wouldn't surprise me to find him peeking through the blinds well after midnight. Watching. Waiting. Hoping.
Don't you wish Christmas held that much excitement for you again?
[image: miniatures.about.com]
Just as an aside, don't you think rhythm is a weird word? One that I need to check for spelling every single time I write it. Kind of like weird. Which words are weird for you?
Kids have an answer for everything, don't they? My son is terrified of Santa and won't go anywhere near him. I've even tried explaining that he is not real... it doesn't help.
ReplyDeleteI love that conversation! Their own particular wants and fears just weave their way through it...making up new explanations and justifications throughout. What lovely days...with slow mornings and anticipation building throught the day.
ReplyDeleteI have had trouble lately with restaurant and have spelled it restuarant...and now that I look at it I don't know how it's spelled! I never used to have trouble with it.
ha! I have trouble with rhythm too {I hope you have it right cause I just copied from you!}
ReplyDeleteI know someone who named their son Rhythm - a boy - a white boy - named Rhythm. His older brother is named Seven. I kid you not.
ReplyDeleteThose boys have got it all worked out! My son says he saw Santa come into his room last year!
ReplyDeleteI love Mr.6's recultance to have a strange man in a red suit come to the house - even if he's bearing gifts1 I think that's a health perspective!
ReplyDeleteDo wish that Christmas held that kind of excitement, and I think if we slow down, and breathe a bit deeper we can find it.
Merry merry to all of you!
We just moved to a house with a chimney so now the kids want to sleep by it so they can see Santa deliver the goods. I said he can't perform if people are watching ;)
ReplyDeleteYeah I'm not excited about Christmas....just at the idea it'll soon be over!
I must say that now the kids are old enough to get excited themselves (6,4,2)I find I am pretty excited about Christmas again. I love it. And school holidays - I'm loving them too. Tiz all good!!
ReplyDeleteMaybe he can outfit Alla Hoo Hoo with a hidden camera and watch the present hand-off while he pretends that sugarplums are dancing in his head??
ReplyDeleteRythm is definitely a weird word for me!! My son is getting his holidays tomorrow, he is 8 and still believes so I am really looking forward to the big day. This could well be our last year with him believing so I intend to make the most of it.
ReplyDeleteI hope Mr 3 sleeps easily, but i think you might be right, he sounds very very excited :D
Jen
Lovely Christmas story. Will have to think about the weird word thing. Charmaine
ReplyDeleteI think xmas hold just a different excitment for us now - the excitment of seeing their excitment!! And yes, as I sit here blissfully reading blogs in my jammies at 7:23 (13 minutes after we would normally have left for the day)...I soooooo love school holidays.
ReplyDeleteAnd as for wierd words, diarrhea (even had to check the spelling just then) - total mental blank for that one (understandable thought...yucky word!!)
xxxCate
PS: I'm accepting an award over at my place and I'd love for you to pop by and 'meet' me :-)
Lovely post. School holiday rhythm has entered our house, and its playing out in tandem with the tense beat of nail guns as Mr Karen renovates our house. This was not planned! There was going to be peace and present wrapping and ... oh fut! That's what you get when you mix Mr Karen and a Jehovah's Witness carpenter who doesn't celebrate Christmas.
ReplyDeleteI agree about rhythm - silly me starting a blog called the rhythm method. EVERY time I type it, I have to re-read to check that everything is where it should be.
In my HSC English Literature exam, the last of my five exams, I spent 20 minutes COMPLETELY freaking out, scribbling on my practice paper, about the word 'yes'. I couldn't think if it had two 's' or just one. Whatever I wrote looked wrong, and I knew I could not submit an english lit exam paper with the word yes spelt incorrectly. Twenty years later and I can still feel myself close to tears, with palpitations.
ReplyDeleteMy Dad can't spell rhythm either - and he can spell every word on earth. We're a bit spelling-obsessed in our family and our idea of a rocking family dinner involved spelling tests...culminating in the piece de resistance: getting Dad to spell rhythm. He never could.
ReplyDeleteEr, that's not entirely normal, is it?
P.S. Shocked and dismayed that you neglected to draw attention to the weirdness of 'scissors', Al. SCISSORS. Look at it! Thine eyes will burn!
Rhythm... YES. Also, VACUUM. 2 Cs or one?
ReplyDeleteLOVE your deep-thinking kids!
I love that Santa is still banned from entering the house. There's a rhythm in that as well.
ReplyDeleteMy word that I always find really difficult to spell no matter how many times I write it is: brachydactylous.
"Having short and blunt fingers" (comes up a lot). x
Aren't they the little moments that make all the crazy worthwhile? Love the excitement of Mr3 (will miss his wide eyes this year) and the wisdom of Mr6.
ReplyDeleteRhythm isn't troublesome for me. It is diarrhoea that I struggle with (the spelling of it, that is).
As for Lady Estrogen's friends, Rhythm and Seven, I pity the fool!
Hi Allison - thanks so much for stopping by my another donkey design blog and for your kind words. My shops are currently closed for the Xmas break but will be re-opening by the 4th - so make sure you check back then. In the mean time - I had a squiz at your blog and you can consider me a new followerer
ReplyDeleteI love this and smiled when I read it. Kids bring Christmas alive with their innocence and the way they see things. Christmas was a bit ho hum around five years ago, but with the birth of baby boy 1, we bought our first Christmas tree, and it's been exciting ever since. I think children bring Christmas back. (Try singing that Justin Timberlake!) xx
ReplyDeleteWe do the 'Santa has a magic key' thing at our house. I'm still uncomfortable with the whole idea of welcoming a strange man into a house once a year, and accepting gifts from him, when I spend the rest of the year telling the kids not to accept things from strangers. But he is not a stranger, he is Santa ...)
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