Life in Beta

Just some snapshots from the last few days back home. Click for descriptions/larger images.

In the last several years, it seems like I’ve seen more and more debate on whether to tell children the “truth” about Santa Claus.

Some parents argue that they don’t want to lie to their kids from the very beginning and simply don’t perpetuate the Santa-myth.

While I understand that sentiment, it just seems to me that children grow up far too quickly these days anyway, and it breaks my heart to take some of the precious magic of childhood away from them.

As a child, I always wanted to believe.

I remember when I started to become skeptical, my mother simply pointed me to a copy of Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus for the answer…

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor—

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O’Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

To this day, that article makes me smile and reignites the magic of this season for me.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Like many weekends, I got my sleep-schedule completely turned around and I was up till 3 a.m. last night. Needless to say, my brain isn’t quite working at full-capacity yet. So today’s update will be bullet-points…

• I’m going home in five days. FIVE DAYS, ya’ll!
• Did I mention that I’m driving home to Erie, Pennsylvania — otherwise known as the icy tundra? The land of LAKE EFFECT snow! Oh what fun. (That photo was taken looking off my mom’s back porch on 12/11.)
• I haven’t driven in snow since 2006. This could be interesting.
• I’m not looking forward to 11-hours of driving…
• But it’s worth it. I get to see my family and several old friends who are coming home for the holidays as well. Yay!
• I have a lot to do in the meantime. Car needs an oil change and to be cleaned out, I need to pack, etc. etc.
• My Christmas shopping is DONE. How’s yours coming along?
• My Christmas knitting, however, is still in-process. As usual, I bit off a bit too much. (But it wouldn’t be ME and wouldn’t be Christmas if I didn’t!)

Annnnd… now I shall return to caffeinateing my system. (Thank goodness for Starbucks!) Happy Monday!

That’s just a little over two weeks, ya’ll!

So, how’s your Christmas shopping coming along?

Remarkably, my Christmas shopping is all but done. I think, like a lot of other people this year, I’ve scaled back my shopping quite a bit. I also don’t have a lot of people to buy for, which makes it much easier.

I always seem to get a case of the bah-humbugs early in the season — ya know, when they start putting out Christmas decorations in the stores at Halloween time. While I realize that retailers’ motivation is to get us in the mood to Christmas-shop, it seems to have the opposite effect on me: when it’s thrown in my face so many weeks before I’m ready for it, I resist out of spite.

The Christmas spirit didn’t really hit me until this past Saturday. I’m not sure what finally triggered it, but I woke up with a hankering to gift shop. Unfortunately, it had to wait till Sunday because I was teaching a knitting class at my local yarn shop that day, and had a holiday party that evening.

Sunday afternoon I was on a mission, though! I was going to finish my Christmas shopping in one day, dang it! And you know what? I did! Aside from a couple gifts I’m still making at home and one gift that I can’t buy till I drive back to Pennsylvania (from a local chocolate shop in my hometown), I am done and it feels so good!

I spent Sunday night wrapping all the gifts I bought. I’d totally forgotten how much I enjoy wrapping packages. I think I might just have a little tiny bit of Martha Stewart in me, because I really get a ridiculous amount of enjoyment out of creasing the wrapping paper just-so and tying a perfect bow. (I’m sick, I know…)

Even more exciting, in eleven days I’ll be leaving Tennessee to go back to Pennsylvania for the holiday. I am so looking forward to my mom’s holiday cooking and being with my parents, grandparents, and all my friends who are also coming home for Christmas.

The not-so-fun part is that I decided I’m going to drive home, which means about 11 hours in the car by myself. Keep your fingers crossed for me that there aren’t any major snowstorms in Kentucky, Ohio, or western Pennsylvania the day I’m traveling! Though I have all-wheel-drive, this Yankee-girl has been in the South too many years and just isn’t so accustomed at driving in snow anymore!!