Santa Who? Santa You?

My 11 yr old daughter, soon to be 12, finally admitted knowing this Santa thing is a hoax. Before I tell the how and when, here's a little background... I have been running around jumping through hoops for years, trying to keep the lie alive. Making the situation worse, her birthday happens to be 6 days after Xmas. I would wrap her gifts from Santa in "special paper", complete with different bows and ID cards from the other gifts under the tree, just to make sure she didn't guess I was really Santa before I was ready. Sending gifts to relatives houses, leaving them in the trunks of friends... never enough time in a single parents day when the holidays roll around. Last year, her dad said he wanted one more year for her to believe. Yeah right!! You really think this girl, the one who loses a tooth, waits a week to put it under her pillow at your house - just so she can squeeze more $ out of you, doesn't know Santa is fake? That girl's no fool, she's known for years!

So here's how it went down:

Last year, "Santa" got her a digital camera. About couple months ago, my mom borrowed her camera for work since she was up here and didn't have hers with her, and mine... well that's another story. Anywho, months go by and I asked my mom if she was going to send the camera back to her, since she lives out of town. It was never coordinated, and for whatever reason, my mom decides just to give my daughter the money to buy a new one. Cool, I didn't really like the other one anyway, and hey, I was in a hurry when I bought it, ok?? Over a period of a week, I keep sending my daughter links to cameras that I think will work and you know what? That little chick is picky!! She keeps telling me she doesn't like this one cuz of the color, and that one doesn't have all the features... say what? Yes, I realize me being somewhat of a tech geek myself caused this, but come on now! You're 11, what features do you need... really?? We decide on a cute little red camera, 10 megapixel and comes with all the features she can handle.

Last week my mom came up again, and she was at the house and my daughter shows her the camera she got. I'm telling my mom about one of the features, and ask my daughter to hand me the camera.

"No." she says.

"Gimme the camera, I paid for it." I say.

"No, Nana paid for it."

So I say, "I paid for the original camera this one is replacing."

To which my daughter responds, "I thought you said Santa got that camera."

I know what you're thinking... she got me. But wait, I'm ready to call a spade a spade... let her know the truth, or at the very least, stop jumping through hoops and let her come to whatever conclusion she wants. I'm done trying to cover this up.

"Girl, quit playin, you know I'm Santa!"

Hahaha!! None of us can stop laughing. Then I tell her that's she's known for a while and she just giggles and says "Yeah."

Gotta love that super cutie :)