My little guy R ("Jiji") is 9, and sometime last year he seemed to have figured out that the tooth fairy, Easter bunny and Santa Claus were not real. It seemed to happen quite naturally, and about the same age that our big son K ("Dio") figured it out, so everything seemed normal.
So, we were very surprised this Christmas to find that Jiji is now making a conscious effort to "believe in Santa". He seems to be going to some effort to preserve this belief, and he chooses to overlook evidence to the contrary.
He complains if Dio goes on too much about how "Santa isn't real, you know." He says, "Dio doesn't believe in Santa, but I do, and I'm right, aren't I." Last night (Xmas Eve) he was very excited, and told Dio several times, "If you wake up during the night and Santa is there, be sure to wake me up!!".. He also left out milk for Rudolph and Coke and cookies for Santa. Also a large bowl coated with leftover frosting from the Christmas cake we were making (a Japanese Xmas activity). With these things was a note written in his best cursive (I have been teaching him cursive this year):
Dear santa
here is some yumy cookies and cola.
oh and some frosting.
don't get sick!
from r----
He was so happy to see that these snacks were gone in the morning, and Santa had left a thank you note. He enjoyed opening his stocking, and getting several Twix, mini-Toblerones, and a mikan (mandarin orange). But in the late afternoon, in the kitchen, he came across the original larger bags which held the Twix and mini-Toblerones -- open, and about half empty. "Oh, so you guys are the ones who put the Twix in my stocking." Me: "Oh, why do you say that?" R: "Datte, the bags are here." Me: "Oh... ... well, those are just the leftovers that Santa left with us." R: "Ah -- so nanda!" (Oh, I see!)
After a few seconds' pause he then said to his brother, "It must be nice for Mommy that one of her children still believes in Santa Claus. ... You should believe in Santa, too."
By the way, here is the result of our Christmas-cake-making. Instead of strawberries (expensive!) we made snowmen for the top, as seen on A Tale of Three Beans (well, our snowman aren't as well-made as theirs, but anyway, it was fun!). Those red berries you see are a handful of raspberries from a bag of frozen raspberries I got at half-price a while back.
There is a really cute website were you write an email to Santa (using a form) and then Santa answers you. You don't have to give your email address - Santa just answers automatically on the next screen, when you click Send. It is at http://www.emailsanta.com/ . It kind of personalizes the letter Santa sends you back, and it is really cute. If your child asks for a well-known toy, it even personalizes the letter with some comment about that toy.
Jiji's 3 wishes from Santa were:
1. toyjack russel terrier
2. book about forests(fiction)
3. happy chrismas for my dog
[explanation - our little dog Toby is a jack russell terrier, so it seemed that Jiji wanted a toy one to play with, too, for some reason. He likes fictional books set in forests, like the "Warrior Cats" series ("Warriors" in the U.S. version), and the "Chronicles of Ancient Darkness" ("Wolf Brother" etc.) series. So he keeps saying he wants to read more fictional books set in forests. ]
In the "comment" section of EmailSanta, he wrote, "I useto believe in you endthen k---- told me that you were'nt real but then dad told me that you were real. You must be lucky to be born with magic."
I think Jiji wants to prolong the magic in his life. It's cute, and we are supporting it.
We had put one new toy in our little Toby (dog)'s stocking, but totally forgot to have "Santa" put more toys in during the night last night. When Jiji woke up this morning, he had time to open his own stocking but then went off to school (for a half day on Xmas day - the last school day before the winter holiday at his school). When he was getting ready in the morning, he said, "Oh, Toby must have gotten some more things in his stocking, from Santa! Datte, when I emailed him I also said I wanted a nice Christmas for my dog!" We were flustered because we forgot to have Santa get Toby anything else, so we hurried Jiji past Toby's stocking, saying, "Santa must have brought more things for Toby! We will open Toby's stocking when you get home from school!" (we later got some more things and Toby was very happy with his Christmas, thanks to Jiji sharing one of his wishes!)
After Jiji went off to school, I was working quickly to finish off most of my New Year's cards (they were due at the post office on the 25th, today, if I want them to be delivered on New Year's Day). Then Daddy and I went off to Costco to do some last-minute Xmas shopping, and buy a chicken and a salad for Xmas dinner. We figured most of the Japanese families would have had their special dinner on the night of the 24th, so there would be plenty of chicken for us to buy on the 25th. Indeed, Costco was not especially crowded, and we got a nice Caesar salad and a pack of 5 big, meaty chicken legs seasoned yummily with pepper. We are having some people over for New Year's Eve, and will cook dinner for them, plus I feel like I *just* did a Thanksgiving dinner, so I didn't want to put too much effort into today's dinner. Tonight we had:
Costco peppery chicken legs, Costco caesar salad, candied sweet potatoes with marshmallows, roasted veg (potato - from our garden!, carrots and leeks), yorkshire puddings (homemade!), and an oniony gravy/dressing (from the supermarket). Tonight we will have the remains of last night's Xmas cake, with chocolate ice cream.
For Xmas we got the kids (a lot of this was from money sent by various grandparents):
Video games (One Piece, Pokemon Platina, Dragon Dragoon, Pokemon Battle Revolution), Pokemon stickers, a Pokemon book, snowboarding gloves (for Dio), a Pokemon battle stadium board-game/toy thing, a book about the body (very detailed and scientific-looking) from Costco, a big & colorful Ripley's believe-it-or-not book from Costco, a pop-up dinosaur calendar from Costco, a box of 20 sticks of colorful holiday-themed jelly/gummies from Costco, a basketball (for Dio), two long cushions to use for resting/reading in front of the heater, a kick-scooter, a tiny Pokemon puzzle, 3 wind-up (kid-powered, no batteries) lights, 2 reading lights that attach to your book, and that might be all but I can't remember now.
For myself I was going to ask for a bottle of Bailey's, but then at Costco I saw the set of 20 decorative scissors (in a nice wooden rack!) that I have been looking at all year, so asked for that instead. Everybody said, "20 pairs of scissors!?" I think the wooden rack got me...
I leave you with a photo from our camping trip this past summer. Happy Holidays from us!!
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