The Naughty List

The great thing about Santa is that you can make him do whatever you want. The possiblitities are only as endless as your creativity really. According to tradition, one has to communicate with Santa by writing a letter and sending it through postal mail to the North Pole. But who does that anymore? I've decided that Santa is now able to recieve phone calls, emails, and more importantly, text messages. So, I've been telling the kids that I've been texting Santa. Mateo, smart as he is, has been calling me out on this.

"So what's Santa's phone number?" he demanded last week on the car ride to school.

" 555-1234" I answered back, "but it won't work if you call it. Santa's phone only works for adults."

So that brings us to today's story, our most recent communication with Santa. After a recent trip to Toys R Us with Grandma Mookie, Nico's two greatest loves have come together: Monster Trucks and the Wii. To say that he is obsessed with this game is an understatement. He wants to play it ever minute of every day with the desperation that a crack addict has for another hit. Due to the hysteria the Wii ensures for both boys, we have long ago limited the Wii to weekends only. However, since getting the Monster Truck game, Nico has started fighting me about this rule like never before by following me around the house and whining non-stop, "Can I play it now? now? NOW!?! ahhh! This is taking a long time! Why isn't it the weekend yet" (A question many of us ask ourselves repeatedly during the week for other reasons).

The thing that gets me is that Nico & Mateo play so well together when video games are not part of the equation. They play outside. They play very imaginative games with their cars and action figures. They color pictures and do play dough. All this without a problem. But if the Wii is an option, then that's all they want to do all day, and it's always a fight to turn it off, especially with Nico. Nico and Mateo get into very heated arguments about the Monster Truck game because 1. Nico must always win and 2. Nico refuses to let Maeto play anything other than Monster Trucks which Mateo is getting pretty sick of.

Today, the plan was that Max would go to his friend's house and take both boys. After being informed that he would have to stop playing Monster Trucks and leave the house, Nico totally lost it. At that point, I'd had enough. And seeing as I was going to be with the kids 24 hours a day for the next 2 weeks, I decided to put a stop to it for everyone's sake.

I pulled out my phone and texted a friend about tomorrow's bike ride. He texted me back a few seconds later.

"That was Santa." I declared. "He knows Nico is being bad and he is coming to take the Wii."

"Nooooo!!!!!" screamed Nico. "My Wii!!!! My Monster Trucks!!!!"

I walked over to the TV and disconnect the Wii. I carry it into the garage and lock the door. I quickly hid the Wii and opened the door. A tearful Nico was waiting on the other side.

"Santa just left." I said calmly, "He was very sad. He thinks you might be on the naughty list now, so he took your Wii to the North Pole. He told me he might bring it back on Christmas if he sees you are being good this week."

"OH, NO! OH NO! MY Wiiiii!!!!!" Nico sobbed as he collapsed to the floor.

"Yep, you're not going to get to play it for a long time." said a grinning Mateo who had been quietly watching this scene unfold.

"Mateo, Santa said he was sorry you had to lose the Wii because of Nico." I told him.

"It's ok," replied Mateo, "I still have my Nintendo DS"

I glanced at Max who was trying his best not to laugh.

"Santa sees you crying." Max told Nico. "If you keep crying like this, he'll probably keep the Wii."

Nico's sobs subsided into a soft whimper. Poor Nico...hope he redeems himself and gets back on the nice list by the 25th.