Somewhere between accidentally holding hands with the wrong dad in a crowded shopping center and the long drive home in the back seat on a cold December afternoon, is when she decided to become a grown up. She would never suck her thumb again, would never sit on Santa Claus' lap and definitely never call him "Daddy". Tears fell on her new Alvin and The Chipmunks Christmas album that she had saved her allowance to buy. The crowded car full of siblings didn't notice her pain while her mom shouted, "Oh, you're terrible Charles!" Yes he was, all the while hearing his words, "I'm not standing in that line another minute! You're too big to believe in Santa Claus! There's no such a thing anyway!" echoing in her head.
Leaving her inward child was easy for many years. She played the Christmas album for the amusement of her brother and sisters, never acting excited. As luck would have things, time turned her into a mother and that is when the little girl came back. She played Christmas carols on her stereo and waited patiently in long lines with her children to take a peek at Santa. Luck, being the good friend that it is, also turned her into a grandma. The kind of grandma who calls her dad, "Daddy".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxzwWIxiv6A
I love this! I can picture this so clearly as if I were really there! Christmas memories are so intense.
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