No, not the state silly. The little girl.

When Virginia O’Hanlon was just eight years old, she wrote a letter to the editor of New York’s Sun newspaper. On September 21, 1897, the response, written by Francis Pharcellus Church, was printed in the paper. Since then Virginia’s letter has been reprinted in newspapers all over the world and been the basis behind some movies, books and other editorials.

If you haven’t read it before, here it is:

DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

VIRGINIA O’HANLON
115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measure by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest man that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank GOD! He lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Last year when my grandma read Virginia’s letter to us she began to tear up. It’s such a good message. It’s not about whether or not it’s scientifically possible to fly through the sky or carry that whole load or make it around the world in just one night. It’s about the feelings you have at Christmas time; the happiness you have while baking or sharing a meal with your family, the joy you feel when you see a person open a gift from you that they love, the gratitude you have when you open a gift from a loved one and the excitement you see in children.

I always tell my kids if they don’t believe, Santa won’t come. Santa’s not just a person, but rather an emotion. The premise behind the story The Polar Express is that only those who believe can hear the sleigh bells. And as they say at the end of the movie, as we get older we get more skeptical and we forget to believe. The sound of the bells begins to fade until we can’t hear it anymore. I want my kids to always hear the bells. I can still hear them. Can you?

Underwear?!? Yes, underwear. Work with me here.

Over our lunch period today, my friends Necole and Carolyn and I went out to finish up some Christmas shopping. While driving along in my automobile I was telling them about the movie Invincible which Lee and I watched last night. It’s that movie with Mark Wahlberg. He plays Vince Papale who walked on to the Philadelphia Eagles football team during an open call for players in 1976. He was 30 years old at the time. I was telling them that the coach still coaches now, but I couldn’t think of his name. [There's point to this rambling. Just wait for it.]

In the meantime we were brainstorming some ideas for what “U” should stand for. Carolyn came up with eUphoria. And then Necole came up with underwear. Just then I remember the coaches name. I hollered out “Dick.” And we all burst out laughing. [Because we were talking about underwear and I hollered out Dick...as in Dick Vermeil.]

Ok, I guess you had to be there.

So anyway, what does underwear have to do with Christmas, you ask? Well many people get underwear for Christmas. Often in their stockings. But my family takes it a little bit further.

Every year my Aunt Candy gives all the men a fancy pair of underwear for Christmas. It’s usually a pair of boxers, but not every year [those are the scary years]. AND it’s tradition that the men must try their underwear on for us all to see.

Don’t you wish you were part of our family?

One year Lee got some black underwear with glittery Merry Christmas’ or something all over it. Since the glitter sparkled Lee said, “Look! Some bling bling for my ding ding.”

Hmm….guess you had to be there for that one too.

I think “tree” is a given here. But I’m going to throw a curveball and not post a picture of my tree.

This doesn’t count cause it’s not the whole tree. Just the top of the tree. Don’t you just love Lee with his tongue hanging out. That’s the concentrating Lee.

Sadly that star didn’t make it past that night. It had an unfortunate accident which led to it’s demise in many pieces all over the family room.

So Lee had to run back out to Menards to by a new star. This is what we have now….

But this post isn’t about my star [that would be "s"].

While searching the net for some Christmas craft ideas I came across this candy Peppermint tree. I decided that was something fun and easy that we could make.

So I took a trip to the craft store to pick up a foam cone and double-sided tape. I even braved Wal-Mart [which I HATE] because they were the only place that had the green peppermint candies.

We used Gobstoppers for the ornaments [because I like Gobstoppers]. The photo on Family Fun’s website uses bigger jawbreakers which looks a little more dramatic, but we’re happy with our Gobstoppers.

It’s supposed to have a sucker star on the top, but lollipops never last very long on our house. We had three yesterday, but the kids ate them after supper last night. So our tree is currently starless.

Just look at how thrilled the kids look. Of course, they were all sugared up because they got to eat some of the left over candy. But they had a lot of fun slapping the candy on the tree too.

Did you make paper snowflakes when you were a kid? I loved to make snowflakes. I’d fold my paper until it was just a small square and then cut away. When I opened them up I had a beautiful snowflake [or a chopped up peice of paper depending on my cutting skills that day]. It’s one of the easiest winter crafts. And, unless you get a little crazy with the scissors, snowflakes almost always turn out beautiful.

Well, my love for paper snowflakes hasn’t dimished as I got older. Thanks to Kerflop, I found this great tutorial for 3D paper snowflakes. At first it looked a little daunting. I mean, I’m used to just needing some paper and a pair of scissors. This 3D project required tape and staples.

I was running in to roadblocks right from the start. Skyler had used my stapler and forgot to put it back on my desk. But after some hunting I was able to locate it. Then I needed some tape. We had just run out of tape a couple days earlier. But I wasn’t detered. I decided to use packing tape. My snowflake isn’t coming apart for anything.

Once I had my supplies I plopped my butt down on the living room floor and went to work. I decided to use two different shades of blue along with a little white. That seemed snowy too me.

I love my 3D snowflake. I’m very proud of it. I have it hanging in my front window so everybody who drives by can see it.

Yes, I know I’m a total geek.

But since were on the subject of snowflakes, where’s my white Christmas? I hate to bitch and moan about temps in the 30′s and 40′s [that's warm here in December], but I really like snow for Christmas. However, I guess I’m not going to get my wish this year. I was listening to the radio earlier and they said “there will be no white Christmas this year.” This is big news in the Midwest. It’s supposed to snow for Christmas. That’s the law.