Saige, Chase and Santa

Thursday after school I pick up the kids and Chase's friend Jack to take them to their trainer. I'm on the phone with Lisa trying to talk and Saige and Chase are in the backseat fighting. They do that a lot these days. I know my mom is probably smirking to herself right now thinking of how Chris and I used to fight. Let me be the first to admit, it is beyond irritating. It drives me crazy. What drives them crazy is how little I care about what they are fighting about. Really, it's sad but I just don't care. I don't care who started it. I don't care what it's about. All I want is for them to stop picking on one another. I am not a yeller either, I can totally get on a bitchy voice, but screaming is not my thing. That would just give me a bigger headache. They don't really care about the bitchy voice either, I am apparently not that threatening. That is until I lie and say, "Fine, keep fighting. You won't be allowed to go to Daddy's work." It's a lie because, come on, if they're invited. They're going. There is always the stipulation with that too from Marc, "They can come if they don't fight." "Of course, they won't fight." I say, "They have been angels." But really, this is what makes them stop. The allure of going to the car dealership is so great that they might just knock it off for a few minutes. So they finally stop. Now I'm happy. Music, no fighting, it's all good. For a minute. It is at this point, right now, that Saige decides to demand the truth from me. "Is there a Santa Claus Mom?" Really? Are you kidding? I give my standard answer to any question I don't feel like answering, "I can't hear you the music is to loud." "Please turn it down then," Saige says. Damn. That usually works. So she asks again. Now Chase is trying to help out by saying, "Of course there's no Santa Saige. Come on." Chase can obviously sense my discomfort and as usual is trying to protect me from it. "I want to hear Mommy say it," she says. She's a tough nut man. For some reason, this is really hard for me to come clean with. I don't know. You'd think by this point she would just be a non believer cause all her friends are but she has held tight. I don't want to be the one to crush that. I also don't want to be the one to lie to her. Luckily Chase's trainer is txting me some inane question and I can avoid for another minute of two. Not for long. She is not giving up. She says,"Come on. All you have to say is true or false." That's all she wants out of me, one simple truthful word. So I say, "False." She said, "Thank you,"and then just looked out the window. At this point, her arch enemy, her little brother with no animosity just compassion, says, "Well Saige, maybe there is a Santa but it's not who you think it is. Maybe it's just a guy who's nice to other people but doesn't have enough presents for everyone." That sounds good to me.