Santa, the Tooth Fairy & the Easter Bunny...

My daughter is in third grade. I'm not really a fan of third grade so far for an ever-increasing number of reasons.

Probably not the most important reason but definitely the one responsible for the most tears and every gray hair on my head is how unbelievably mean kids can be to other kids. The most recent example of this began on cue with retailers everywhere the minute Halloween ended and it became, for all practical purposes, Christmas.

Every evening I ask my daughter this: "What was your favorite thing about school today?"

And her answer is usually something like this: "So-and-so isn't friends with so-and-so anymore because they wouldn't trade the Silly Band she wanted." Or "I was the last one on my side at Dodgeball in PE. Why did everyone throw it at me?" Or "Miss So-and-so is getting married in 73 and a half days! Do you think she'll let me be a bridesmaid?"

But today was a little different. She said this: "I'm the only one at my lunch table who believes Santa Claus is real. Is he really really real? Like not just in your heart but really real?"

Crap.

I say: "He is real to all the people who believe in him. How does it make you feel when you think about Santa? (Happy.) Me too. Do the kids telling you Santa isn't real act like they are feeling happy? (No.) Well, then I guess they don't have to believe in Santa, but I'm going to believe he's real and do the kinds of things Santa would like for me to do."

Two hours later when I'm tucking her into bed, my daughter looks up at me with these huge green, searching eyes and asks, "Mom, is the Easter Bunny real?" I say, "Yep, and the Tooth Fairy. They get together and play chess when it's not their holiday." She thinks a minute, crunching her forehead like she does when she's working on a math problem. Then she says, " I feel sorry for the Tooth Fairy because she has to work a lot harder than the other ones, and she probably isn't very good at chess because she never has time to practice."

I was also informed that the Easter Bunny wears a yellow suit with white buttons, has big fluffy white ears, and flosses since he's always eating so much candy. In case you were wondering...