The Gemini Diaries

Quick story about the joys of parenting at Christmastime. After MaryPoole got done talking to Santa about her wishlist, we asked her "Did you tell Santa you didn't want a real hippo?" and she got this almost deathly pall over her face and looked up at us with a look of utter shock.

"No." she said calmly "I forgot. I hope he doesn't bring me a real hippo."

At which point LeeAnn proceeded to pile on. "Oh no, MaryPoole. You forgot to tell him? Uh oh, Daddy you're probably need to get some wood to start building a fence just in case."

And then me "Yep. I'll get started on this afternoon. We can build him a big pen in the backyard. But what do hippos even eat?"

And then Perritt (unwittingly) jumps in "I think maybe hay.... or some salad. Hippos love salad."

And all the the while MaryPoole has this look on her face like a high school student who turned in her test early only to find out later that the back of the test had questions on it too and she'd just left them all blank because she didn't know they were there. We almost felt bad about teasing her about it, but then she said "I'm sure Santa knows not to bring me a real hippo. How could he get a big hippo in his sleigh anyway?"

She's so logical. "You're probably right, MaryPoole. I'm sure he'll know what you meant."

But Perritt wouldn't let it go and started giggling about the idea of a real hippo. "He could probably fit a baby hippo on his sleigh. A REAL baby hippo because they aren't so big and fat yet."

It was just enough to keep her guessing. Much to her delight, she found her stuffed hippo on Christmas morning.

Santa always knows.