Santa Myths

James is a thinker. An analyzer, really. Two years ago, when Elizabeth expressed with excitement that she couldn't wait to see Santa, James replied "Lizzy, you can't see Santa because Santa is nocturnal".
While driving to a party at Jim's work, James revealed his plan to pull off Santa's beard.
"Why would you do that?"
"Because that's what they do in the movies."
"That wouldn't be very nice."
(and we need to better edit the Christmas movies you're watching...)
...
We arrived at the party and as James and Lizzy ran to decorate cookies and win ring tosses and cupcakes, Anna went straight to Santa- and what do you know, it was the real Santa with a real beard! Nevertheless, I warned him of my 6-year-old's ploy. Eventually James took a break from the activities to make a final request to Santa. And ya know, that Jolly Ol' Man pulled on his beard and offered James to give it a tug, too. Yup, he was the real deal!

Last week in school, the first graders held a "Christmas around the world". James came home with interesting facts of various traditions and such. He proceeded to tell me a Greek story of how a bishop, named St. Nicholas, found out about a family in need and dropped gold down the chimney. These coins landed in the daughter's stockings which were hanging by the fireplace to dry, and this is how the tradition of stockings began. "See mom," James reasoned, "Santa is Mormon".
"Oh, why do you say that?"
"Because he was a bishop."
Guess next week we should learn about religions around the world...

Anna was first to join me for breakfast this morning. As I finished reading from my scriptures, I tried explaining to her 2-year-old-mind what I was reading about. it went something like this:
"Nephi was really excited to know when Jesus would be born, but he didn't live near Jesus, and they didn't have phones. So Heavenly Father told him he would put a new, bright star in the sky so that everyone in the world could see it. So when it was night, Nephi looked up in the sky and guess what he saw?!"
Anna beamed and exclaimed "a helicopter!"
We still have 2 more nights to get the facts straight.