I had thought this was a photoshop. WTH.

My spouse and I opted not to tell our kid last year, with me not wanting to be the one to spoil it and her wanting to keep the magic “just one more year.”

This year was already too late. The kid got into an argument at school about whether or not Santa was real.

My spouse and I planned it all out, planned on going out to get a hot cocoa, etc., etc. Instead my kid sat ME down and said they wanted to ask me something. So I got stuck telling answering that Santa wasn’t real, but spun it that it was about learning to give without getting, and ended up pulling out Death’s SPEECH from Hogsfather about believing in big lies.

The kid mostly cared that they’d still get presents, so it was a bust.

… Bourbon??

My universe has just expanded.

Many years ago, long before the advent of cellular phones or even really GPS units, when doing road trips in convoy, the local ritual was “Are we there yet?” “Twenty minutes.”

Said question, over the course of a few years, migrated from “we’re off the highway and approaching our final destination” to as we were departing… But everyone was in on the joke.

I don’t think the people waiting another two weeks are in on the joke.