Skip to main content

Meeting Santa

The place we got our Christmas pictures taken today had a Santa Claus visiting (so you could get your picture taken with him, I suppose). Amanda was standing in the middle of the hallway in a daze of some sort, and he had to get by. She looked up, moved out of the way for him to pass, and went back to whatever she was doing. I asked her, "Who was that?" She answered, "I didn't know that Santa Claus was going to be here." She was interested in watching him, but not really in talking with him. Towards the end of the visit, she explained, "I saw you in a movie!" She had been watching The Santa Clause for about 10 minutes today while I tried (unsuccessfully) to put Luke down for a nap.

I can see that seeing Santa was confusing for her. He's clearly not imaginary---she saw him both on TV and in real life. On the other hand, most people don't dress like that, but then again, she doesn't really have the experience to decide that he's really unusual. I think the real amazing thing for her was seeing someone on TV and then in real life.

Santa asked her what she wanted for Christmas, and she answered a jack in the box. That is funny, since lately we've been doing the jack in the box with no toy, just our imagination. Luke and Amanda think it is hilarious, I don't know why we'd ruin it by getting a real toy.

A week or two ago I asked Amanda what she wanted for Christmas. "A present." I think we can manage that.

(My apologies if this post is not clear. It's all Michael's fault for having the Internet turned off for so long. Really.)

Comments

Anonymous said…
Muahaha! I just made up all that stuff about Time Warner Cable giving us two broken "refurbished" cable modems in a row because I was tired of having internet connectivity. Or something like that...
mathmom said…
I knew it! Now, could you do it again, so I can clean up the kitchen and watch my netflix instead of reading blogs every night =)

Popular posts from this blog

Why you should study the history of math

  Why you should study the history of math In the mid 1300s a fad made its way around Italy. Mathematicians would challenge each other to “mathematical duels”. They would post problems for their opponents to solve, sometimes along with their solutions in coded poetry. The winners would get support and funding from rich patrons, the losers would descend into obscurity. One such contest, between Fiore and Tartaglia, involved a new method for solving the cubic. In order to win, Tartaglia worked day and night to find Fiore’s method---unfortunately, Fiore did not do the same and only knew his own method and no others. (*Recall that the formula for solutions to quadratic equations of the form use the quadratic formula, Giorlamo Cardano---physician, philosopher, astrologer and mathematician---convinced Tartaglia to share his method and promised never to reveal it. Then Cardano figured out a more general method, and wanted to share it, but was blocked by his promises. Fortunately (for Ca...

Books I like: reality edition

Here are some more books from my childhood and later. I read a lot as a kid, and these books are the ones that stand out in my memory. I figure that if I can remember them 25 years after I read them, they must be pretty good. I'm calling this the "Reality Segment," not fantasy, not science fiction, not history, just real life. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin : This is probably my favorite children's book of all time. I read it in 3rd grade or so, then read it again to clear it up more. Then I read it in 6 th grade and finally understood what was going on during the second reading of the will. In more recent readings I've understood more about Sydelle Paulaski and the relationship between Dr. Denton and the lovely Angela. What a pleasure. Ellen Raskin has written many other good children's books (all quirky and surprising) but this is the jewel. Bruno and Boots books by Gordon Korman : As the FNDP (Friendly Neighborhood Developmental Psychologis...

Books I like: magic/science fiction

I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy when I was younger, so I was surprised when I was thinking about this list at how few books were on it. The other thing that is interesting is how many books I just remember a few details from, but not anything useful like a title or author. Half Magic and the whole series, by Edward Eager: My favorite is Knight's Castle, although I suspect I would have enjoyed it more if I had ever read Ivanhoe... Mrs. Piggle Wiggle by Betty MacDonald: I'm not sure when it happened, but I now identify with the parents rather than the kids. The Seven Citadels by Geraldine Harris: I came back to the Jr. High library to check this out even after I moved on to the high school. Girl with the Silver Eyes by Wilo Davis Roberts: I always wondered what would happen if I had ESP and other "special" abilities. The OZ books, by L. Frank Baum: I read almost all of these (all the ones I could find in the library, rather). My favorite is Tik - To...