'Tis the Season for Dispelling THE Myth

I finally had THE talk with SmallBoy. You know, the one about the jolly old guy with the white beard. The guy who wears a red suit and stays out all night flying high as a kite, going into people's homes and eating all of their cookies, and then leaving gifts in return. Yeah, that's the guy. The big S.C. I wasn't too certain how the conversation was going to go or be understood. Granted, he's 10years old and in 4th grade, and I'm surprised he hasn't found out from peers or from spoil sports wanting to ruin the fun, but it was the Asperger's reaction that I was concerned with. I wasn't certain how knowing this reality was going to affect his trust in us.

Let me start at the beginning, though, and tell you how all of this came into play. On Monday, I had put up several posts, which, for me, is unusual, but I was having fun. In one of the posts, I had put up a funny "music" video that I had seen on Bloggg's site. It was the cast of the Christmas Charlie Brown video doing the dance that they do, only it was set to the song, "Heya". The whole family watched this video and rolled on the floor in hysterics (go check it out, you'll pee in your pants). As I was addressing Christmas cards last night, SmallBoy hopped onto the computer and checked into my site to watch the video again. I don't usually let him read my site without my knowledge, because I don't always say very nice things about how his father treats him or his other two children or me, for that matter. This time, though, SmallBoy was sitting right next to me. and I knew what he would be looking at. Perfectly harmless, or so I thought.

All of a sudden, I hear him say,

"You got me MOON BOOTS?"

OOPS! I knew exactly what had happened. When he was watching the video, he had scrolled far enough that the beginning of the previous post was showing. Guess what that one was about. God! You're smart! Yep, I had posted about what would be great Christmas gifts for SmallBoy - things that would help his sensory issues, his spatial awareness issues, and would also give him a way to use up a lot of his energy to help when his engine is too high or when he's feeling particularly upset or stressed. At the VERY beginning of the post, though, I mentioned that I had bought him some moon boots for Christmas. There's a story behind that for another post, but for now the door was open for the Santa conversation. How to begin?

I took a moment to argue with myself about whether or not I should just leave well enough alone. Certainly I could say that, yes, indeed, the moon boots were from PC and me. We give gifts from Santa and gifts from us anyway, so it wouldn't have been an issue. I could have simply let the proverbial sleeping dragon lie. Nope. I knew that if I did not seize the moment, it would be lost for another year or, at least, until someone spilled the beans. I inhaled to prepare my words and, moreso, to prepare myself for the fact that my youngest child, my baby, was about to lose the last shred of childhood innocence - the fantasy that we've been playing out for the last 16 years, since LargeBoy was a small boy was about to come to its fruition. And within the long 5 second inhale, I readied myself for that reality also.

I exhaled and said to him,

"Hey, SmallBoy - how do you think I knew that you were getting moon boots for Christmas? Remember that conversation we had about my secret identity (tooth fair myth disepelled), well, I've got another one. Can you guess who?"

"No way! You're Santa, too?"

"Yep." (LONG pause to gauge reaction) "So, what do you think about that?"

"Sooooooo, you're Santa?"

"Yep. Is that ok with you?"

"Yeah. Soooooo can I still believe in Santa?"

Ahhhh, the Christmas spirit is not broken, nor lost. Face it, we all still have that Santa thing, right? I went on to explain how it's wonderful, he can still believe as long as he knows that it is the grown ups who bring the presents. He can still believe, but knowing this new secret, it's his responsibility to play along with those who don't yet know their parents' secrect identities. He was cool with that. I'm so happy. It could have been MUCH MUCH worse. Now, my biggest problem is finding him something DIFFERENT for Christmas. Anyone have any more ideas?