Meanwhile Cheeky has always been a practical kid.. He has never wanted to sit on Santa's lap.. thinks its too "Cheesy". Yet a Santa picture adorns our mantle this year. Thanks to his friends, who wanted to see Santa. Cheeky sported a Sly grin and said "Yay! Lets go see the real Santa and take pictures" and went off with his Friend's family! Earlier when we were in Disneyland, he spotted some kids getting autographs from the Characters and asked me "Whats with these kids? Don't they know that is someone in a costume?". I knew then that this cant be the guy who claims to believe in Santa Claus.. there was something fishy.
Yet my son never failed to remind me that Santa would come on his shining sleigh on Christmas Eve. I asked him so what about the guy you took the picture with.. "Oh that guy is fake, the real Santa doesn't have time to sit around and take pictures" said Mr. Know-It-All.
"Where does Santa live?" I asked
"In the milky way galaxy" came the reply
"Huh.. that's pretty huge" Said I.
"I don't have to go looking for him, he will find me" came the reply
But he never failed to tell me what he wanted for Christmas. He would remind me 4 times a day "I am going to ask Santa for a Nintendo DS.. Because (Here is when the voice gets a bit louder and obvious) .. my mom wont let me have it". At this point I knew my 6-Going on 16 year old son was faking it big time! So a few days before Christmas I said "Look I am too busy to go Christmas shopping this year, so we are going to have to hope that Santa remembers ". And I looked pretty serious too.. so that prompted the cat out of the bag.
"Oh alright mom, I know" said the Cheeky Monster!
"Know what" I asked innocently
"That there is no real Santa, you guys are my Santa"
"Really, what about the milky way galaxy"
"You know I was making that up" Said he with a grin
"How did you find out?" asked I
"Oh I have known for a couple of years" said he
Now that was a shocker, and I thought my son was innocent.. at least when he was 4. And he revealed the big truth
"Well 2 years back I saw you buy a King toy at the store, a few days later it turned up on Christmas with a note from Santa. And I guessed the truth"
Whats more shocking than this is the fact that my son has actually been hiding the fact from me for the past 2 years and playing along.. talk about Cheeky!! But I have known all along too.. the whole charade seemed a bit too forced, so I suspected that my son was pretending too!!
Like friends remind me time and again.. "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.. we are a matched pair!" And whats more this year we went Christmas shopping together, and pulled everything out 2 days early. When I admonished him, Cheeky declared "How does it matter?" .. and I agreed. Nevertheless old habits die hard, so on Christmas there were a couple of gifts waiting at the fire place. But this time there were no notes from Santa.
And there is always a lesson in there, so we are sending some money to charity this year. We have redefined Santa and are playing Secret Santa to some deserving kids in a remote village in Southern India. If any of you are interested, let me know and I will send you the details.
