Ho Ho Ho

Bryan is on the ball about gifts. He likes to have his Christmas shopping completed months in advance. Once he has them, he usually tucks them away and doesn't wrap them until a few days before they need to be opened. But this year, he's already wrapped most of my gifts and they're waiting under the tree.

One morning last week the kids came downstairs to see presents under the tree. Now, we don't really do the Santa thing other than as a game, so I was surprised to hear Phoebe exclaim in excitement, "Santa was here! Guys! Santa was here!"

Sophie, with a look of pained patience and wise understanding, looked at Phoebe and said, "Phoebe, Daddy is Santa."

Not to be deterred, that day after school Phoebe showed us an email she had received from Santa after writing to him with the rest of her class. She read it to Sophie and said, "See, he even mentions Mrs. Claus. He's real."

I was in the driver's seat and Sophie was strapped into her car seat behind me, so I couldn't see her face. However, I recognized the same tone she had used that morning when she told her big sister, "Phoebe, Mommy is Mrs. Claus."

Sophie's name does mean wisdom, I just didn't expect her to be imparting it already.