bye bye santa

each year, for the last several years, kai and i visit santa on grouse mountain. it is always alot of fun - skating, building a snowman, taking a sleigh ride, and visiting santa's reindeer.  this is the only place i would let kai see santa and it has been the same santa all these years (no mall santas for us)! 

despite my efforts to keep santa alive, last year kai hinted that he may not believe in santa.  unable to let go of the magic of santa i rented polar express to encourage him to believe. i think it kind of worked.

2010...

2007...

2004...

this year kai declared there was definitely no santa. he told his dad, on the walk to school, that santa was just a nice story but it wasn't true. he further explained that it was us, stefan and i, that placed the presents under the tree. to my chagrin, stefan confirmed this fact. do i just say bye-bye to santa for good? do we not leave out cookies and a note on christmas eve? 
this website, capture the magic, lets you upload a photo of your living room and then add an image of santa into the scene.  voila, proof that santa exists.  cute, yes?  but believable to an 8 year old that no longer believes?  sigh.

at least, i think, he still believes in sinterclaus, the dutch santa that fills his and stefan's shoes with candy on december 5th. he hasn't said anything about him, yet.