Lies, Lies and more Lies.

Many of my Christmas-related blog posts have been related to us running around town, taking in all the Christmas festivities. While that is all fun and good, when I think about Christmastime this year, I want to remember the spontaneous fun we had at home.

Gwen's two favorite things about Christmas are Baby Jesus and Rudolph (and hopefully in that order). The last month we have spent countless hours pretending to be Baby Jesus and acting out the nativity, or pretending to be Rudolph.

The last year or so, Gwen has loved playing make believe. Often our games will include conversations about what is real and what is just pretend. Not wanting Rudolph to overshadow Jesus, I initiated one of these conversations.

"You know, Gwen," I said one day, "Rudolph is just pretend."

"He is?"

I then realized the implications of what I just said.

"Uh, well...what I meant was..." I back peddled. "Just kidding, he's real."

It was too late.

"Oh. Well then is Santa real?"

"Yes, of course, " I said.

What had I gotten myself into?

I was grateful the conversation was over. How could I have been so dumb? If Santa is real, then doesn't Rudolph have to be real too? Where does the myth end and the truth begin?

Unfortunately, it only took a few minutes before Gwen brought the conversation back to Rudolph.

"Mom, can reindeer talk?"

"Um...No. Yes. No. I don't know. I'm not sure. Yes."

What was the right answer here? I needed time to think before getting bombarded with these complicated questions. I quickly decided that either the whole Santa story is true or the whole thing is made up.

If I had it my way, I would give up the whole Santa charade anyway, but it isn't just up to me. But, that's another story.

A few days later I heard that there was a Reindeer Festival at Swanson's Nursery with live "Santa's" reindeer. I knew that Gwen would completely love this and talked to Rick about going. Although Gwen was busy doing something else, she never misses anything. She overheard and immediately wanted to go. We assured her that we would go before Christmas.

Before bed that night, Gwen had an idea. She wanted to write a letter to the reindeer, imploring them to be nice to Rudolph. She wanted to bring it to the nursery for them to have and share with the rest of the reindeer. As I was tucking her in, she started dictating her letter.

"Did you get all that, Mom?" She asked me. She wanted to write the letter right then. Although we couldn't write it that night, I promised we would soon. Actually, I guess I broke that promise because we never got around to it.

The next day, Gwen asked me again. "Mom, can reindeer talk?"

"Um..."

"Will I be able to talk to them at the Reindeer Festival?"

Oh great, I had just told her a few days ago that reindeer could talk. How was I going to get myself out of this one?

Thinking fast I said, "No, they speak in a special reindeer language, so they can only talk to each other."

I was beginning to think I was going to have to start taking notes on our conversations to make sure I was being consistent with all of this Santa trickery.

Thank goodness she didn't ask me to expand on this "reindeer language" and question why the reindeer can talk to Santa, the elves, Yukon Cornelius and all of those misfit toys.

I never realized this Christmas stuff could be so complicated.