M has been asking questions about Santa this year. Lots of questions. You know the ones; Is Santa real? Does he make all of those toys? Those questions. It's been sad and funny at the same time.

She wanted a Wii for Christmas this year. We told her if that was what she wished for that would be the only Santa present she got. That didn't make sense to her-Santa makes the presents, not buys them. I responded he had to buy the parts! There were lots of little comments though. I guess several of the kids in her class don't believe in Santa anymore.

We took the picture though. She would ask leading questions about how the whole Santa process worked. If my answers came too close to true she would tell me, "Mommy, don't ruin my Christmas joy!"

Our Christmas morning was a little strange. We spent the night at our house but she wanted to do Santa at my parents. When we woke up we called and headed over there. There just wasn't any real Christmas joy to her reaction. She got the Wii and some games we thought she would enjoy. No big shock there.

My dad always has a Santa gift for her outside under the M tree. It's a tree he planted her first Christmas. There's a big ornament on it for every year also. Santa always leaves a note with that one. My dad does a really good job on Christmas gifts. There's lots of thought put into it and it's always a surprise. So this year there was a note from Santa about her piano recital this year and Santa thought she might need a piano for practicing. He bought her a new keyboard. Still no excitement.

So when we came home, we had the TALK. If you know me, you know I've been planning what to tell her about this subject. I think she actually was relieved to know the truth.

Santa Claus is not really about the guy in the red suit. He's about that spirit of kindness and love for others. She picked out all of my presents this year so she understood how it feels to plan and ponder that "perfect" gift.

So it's the end of Santa cookies for us.