Thursday, October 9, 2014

That Magic Moment


Have you ever been in a moment that is so magical you want to suspend it in time so it can last forever?  Yeah, well mine is gone.  Ok, it was more like a stream of moments put together that were my kids' single digit years.  And though my youngest,  Ember, isn't double digits until next month, we've bridged one of those major magical milestones, confirmation that Santa (the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy) isn't real.

I couldn't wait for this magic moment to come or so I thought.  Hiding the gifts "from Santa" was getting exhausting with 4 snoopy kids.  In addition to answering the increasingly intricate questions of how he gets all those presents to all those houses.  Putting out and eating the cookies and carrots on Christmas Eve was a burden.  Maybe that wasn't so hard.  And to be honest, we didn't eat the carrots, we just put them back in the fridge and pretended the reindeer ate them.

Though I couldn't wait for the charade to be over, I still didn't want to tell Ember quite yet, except we're going to Thailand over Christmas.  And I don't have the energy to hide stuff from Santa in the luggage and try to pull off a magical Christmas after 24 hours of traveling with 4 kids and little sleep.  But I really feel like an era is gone now.  And I want to take it all back.  To pretend that magic still exists and try to keep my kids in a suspended state of innocent wonder where good things come to good people forever.

But instead, I'll have to accept that the magic moment is gone.  That they need to experience all the wonder of the world.  The good, the bad, the ugly.  And they'll need to learn how to make their own magic.   And how to savor and celebrate it in all its fleeting delight.

4 comments:

  1. Ember "knew" at 8, but she didn't want to lose that magic moment either.

    Thanks for the memories, as a kid and as a Dad.

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  2. I've been through it with my kids, who are in their 30's and 40's now and making their own magic moment with their kids. I missed it for a while, but that has passed now. I just enjoy watching them run like turkeys hiding Santa. :)

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  3. Yes, that's very wise and true, that now they need to look for the magic in their own lives and find it in them to believe. I'd like to believe that ordinary things can always be magical if we see the world with gratitude. So yeah, there's clearly hope! :-)

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  4. I am pretty sure that there will be plenty of magical moments to come, even without Santa...

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