Santa

Hope has never believed in Santa, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy. Grant has been on the fence about all of them, but mostly it's a non-issue: he doesn't ask about it and we don't bring it up. We do the Tooth Fairy routine, but it's always kind of with a "wink." And we've never wrapped up presents from Santa, or visited him at the mall, or left cookies.

But this year, for the first time, the fire department brought Santa around on a fire truck and both kids thought it was pretty fun. Hope simply enjoyed the spectacle of it, but Grant was kind of quiet and thoughtful about it, and you could see the wheels turning in his mind.

They had been just about to get in the showers when we heard the fire trucks coming, so they threw some clothes back on and ran outside just in time. Whether or not they go along with the Santa thing, I was grateful that the fire department gave them that brief magical moment!