the two stocking christmas and how santa ruined it

I thought this might be the year that Sarah figured the whole Santa thing out. Her father has been telling her he isn't real for a while now, but she chooses not to believe him. She mentioned that Santa came to her school but that he wasn't the real one like at Macy's. I wrapped everything-and I do mean everything including gifts from grandparents, parents, cousins, uncles and aunts, and Santa-in the same wrapping paper and with the same tags. It seemed like she would put things together and come to the crushing conclusion that he isn't real. It's fortunate, however, that she did not as her Christmas was awful, and she has Santa (and not me) to blame for it. Here's how it went down. She wrote him a letter a while back with a list about a mile long of things that she wanted. I didn't even know what half of them were. She included a doll house, a DS, My Littlest Pet Shop, and every Polly Pocket thing ever made among dozens of other things. I really considered the dollhouse, but my concerns were that we don't have room for it and that she wouldn't play with it after the initial excitement wore off. So I picked some other things I was thinking and hoping that she would like.

Things started off great when she found her two stockings full of treasures. She has two and was hoping they would both be filled. Of course, I obliged.

Then she opened a few things that were not on her list. And she said, "This was not what I ordered." Seriously. Not what I ordered? Where does she come up with this stuff? Thanks a lot, Santa!

Finally she opened a few things that tickled her fancy. She even wanted to put a momentary halt on ripping into the presents, actually open them, and play with them. I almost gasped.

And she got a DS. She was a little bit confused by this. When she first saw the box, she asked if it was a cell phone. Um, no. Then she asked if it was an iPod. Nope. When she finally figured it out, she was a little bit excited. She still seemed kind of glum, however, as the day wore on and moped around for a while. It took her a little while to warm up to her gifts, but once she did, she was pretty excited and really played like she hasn't for a long time. I think she was sad about not getting a dollhouse, so I feel a little sad for her. But she has decided that she loves her DS. It turns out Guess Who is a pretty awesome game after all. Did I mention she got two Polly Pockets sets? They've already seen some action in the bathtub and the sink. Maybe Santa didn't ruin Christmas after all, huh kid? Oh, and Santa-your secret is safe for another year!