supermum to the rescue

i love for them to believe in the tooth fairy. i want them to believe in santa claus.

sounds a little corny and naive, perhaps, and a little unscrupulous to be misleading my children like that. i felt the slightest tinge of guilt when my son kept asking 'mummy, are you the man in red that comes to give us present?'. i tried answering indignantly, 'i'm not a man!!' but he didn't get it. what else could i do? i redirected him to his father. he's better at lying.

at some point in time, they will surely find out the truth. i am sure. but when i saw my son jumped up from his bed first thing early morning, and walked around blurry-eyed looking for present from santa, and my daughter telling me she is so happy because santa brought her the very thing she has been wishing for, i knew i'll continue to pretend to be santa for as long as i can.

it's not exactly simple 1,2,3 stuff pulling the wool on children nowadays. their keen observation and curiousity ('busybody-ness' may be a more accurate description) makes them even harder to fool than some adults. it doesn't really help that it's the holiday season and i've got them on my hands 24-7. the first task of physically getting the present was simple enough. chuck them at the taekwando class and floor the gas pedal to the nearest toys-r-us, having formed the plan and identified the targeted presents in my mind and ran them again and again through the fool-proof double-check machine lying idly in the cobwebbed cranial area.

then comes the problem of hiding them inside the boot of the car for the rest of the day whilst we carry on with the activities. i nearly died of heart-attack when dear friend wanted to get something from the boot and busybody daughter felt the need to peer in together, checking out what else she has in her bag. in the blink of an eye, supermum grabbed both children's hands and pulled them to daddy, mumbling some nonsense about them following daddy in the shopping centre later. you can see from their eyes they were as puzzled as i was. i can not respond instantaneously and make sense. it's physically not possible.

hurdle no. 1 cleared. supermum saved the day. we left the presents lying in the boot for the rest of the day, and night. hubby was suppose to bring them up after work the next day. *sigh* this is a testing year for us, supermums and imaginary santa clauses. mummy, the ordinary day type, had to bring them out, and return at the very same time that present courier-man comes home from work. not a minute sooner, not a minute later. luckily, supermum realised the coincidence in the timing and called mr. courierman ahead to check his position. he's just a block ahead! supermum took her feet off the gas pedal and simply let the car rolled forward, s...l.....o......w.....l......y. it was amazing no one saw fit to exercise their car horns and express their frustration. maybe it was the festive mood. and so, a gap of a few minutes was created and mr courierman could safely escort the presents home. once again, supermum saved the day.

not quite the end of the story, though i must finish fast before the little ones wake up and lean over my shoulder to read what i am writing. mr courierman left the presents in the closet and mummy, the one that keeps fouling up and making mistakes, promised the children that they could sleep in the room, on mattresses on the floor, and as you guys can guess, beside the closet. the very secretive closet. the younger one fell very quickly asleep, right next to the closet door. nothing seems to be going right. the older one was trying to keep awake to catch sight of THE man. halfway through a show, mummy mumbled something about toilet and went into the room to remove the presents from the closet, roughly turning the little one away in the process. supermum was in a hurry! nothing goes right the night before christmas. just when supermum was stashing the presents in another closet, the older one walks in and asked what mummy was doing. a prayer for small miracles. the light was not on. in the darkness she could not tell that they were big white toys-r-us plastic bags. supermum explained that she was on the way to the toilet when there was a crash from the closet, hence she had to come in and put things properly. and who said mummy can't lie? it wasn't me, it was supermum, honest.

hurdle no. 3 cleared. and hopefully the last. it was. just about. mummy was getting sleepy and tired from all the stressful run-around for the whole day and suggested retiring for the night. the little girl fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow....... but not before her mummy did. but with super-strength will, supermum forced herself to wake up and with blurry eyes and fuzzy brain, she stealthfully grabbed the presents into the living room to wrap. in the middle of the night. when her bed was still warm and beckoning.

there has to be an easier way next year. dear santa, please kindly help.