Almost busted

The boys like to play a game where one of them hides these army men and then the other one has to find them. What normally happens is that they hide them everywhere and the other child doesn’t find them all. So I will find them all over the place at different times.

Thanksgiving weekend they decided to play the game. I requested that they only hide them in one space, whether it be in the sun room, family room or one of their bed rooms. They took off and I cleaned up the kitchen.

I headed upstairs to get ready for the day and as I did my husband walked out of our bathroom to find our closet doors wide open with the boys in our room. He got incredibly mad at the boys and sent them to their rooms. We had some presents in there that we had not had a chance to move yet. Not one of them was in a bag. We thought about moving them the previous night but I was really tired and thought it could wait one more day.

My entire shower I was trying to come up with something we could say. Yes, we would probably have to tell a few white lies but what could we do. My husband came in a few minutes later and said he talked with both boys. They did not see anything. They were probably wondering why we were so upset.

This led us to our discussion of when is it time to not believe any more. I have friends whose kids in 5th grade still believe (or else they are playing along). I personally think that 5th grade is a bit too late. A 5th grader has so many more reasoning abilities.

I stopped believing early on thanks to be the last of 5 children and having an older sister who I would overhear talking about gifts. That and the fact that I would hear the rattling of the bags as my parents brought gifts from their bedroom. We lived in a small house and I shared a room with my 2 sisters.

I am not going to tell them anytime soon. I enjoy their excitement of Christmas and the crazy ideas that pop into their heads about Santa. I know at some point it will happen.

So on December 24th, we will leave cookies on a plate and a glass of milk for Santa and reindeer food on our driveway for the reindeers.