...this year included this lovely, letter-perfect gift from Santa:

Chicken Corner's feelings exactly!

And warmest wishes for a happy 2010 to all!

On another note: Santa.

Like so many confused parents of five-year-olds, my husband and I got roped into the big lie about the man with the flying reindeer and elf-slaves. On the day Madeleine and our dog, Chyla, had their photo taken with Santa at Peter Shire's holiday studio sale -- the photo event a fundraiser for the Echo Park Animal Alliance -- she wanted to go back and remind Santa about her request for a clipboard, since he was on-hand and all. Even after all the gifts were open, their wrapping paper balled up and tossed in the recycle bin, Madeleine has been preoccupied with the Santa and his reindeer. Could we visit him off-season in the North Pole? How do the reindeer fly? Why, precisely, would he refuse to deliver the gifts just because she was awake? Does he have a phone?

So many questions. Day after day of them. But there was a bit of anxiety. On Christmas Eve, I stopped in to Silver Lake Wine with Madeleine. We picked up a couple of bottles of white bourdeaux. On our way back to the car:

"Mama?"

"Yes?"

"You know Santa?"

"Yes."

"There's something very wrong with him. ... Because his beard is too long."

I'm still trying to calibrate exactly the right response to that one.