santa is okay with washing machines

Christmas Eve, Johnny woke around 3, having wet the bed. This has only happened two other times so far, and he was rather devastated. Still half-asleep, he bawled while I grabbed every blanket and pillow in sight, (he keeps an entire pile of them in his room, and at 3am, there is really no telling what all might have been affected) working entirely in the dark. We had a tussle over me taking away his "whites" to be washed with the rest of the blankets, as well as his stuffed Mario. He was sure he'd absolutely die if he didn't have them to sleep with for the rest of the night. I gently nudged him toward the bathroom and asked him to go try and see if he had to go any more ("I DON'T! It's ALL GONE!") while I ran the bundle down to the washing machine.

Coming back up the stairs, I grabbed a few blankets and pillows out of my own room (because I am just as much of a "comfy thing" hoarder as my son) and tossed them onto his bed before joining him in the bathroom. He was standing exactly where I had left him, whimpering softly while, as best I could tell, sleeping on his feet. I felt like the meanest person in the world having to make him endure getting cleaned up, but we got everything taken care of and I took him back to his room. He wasn't happy with the new blankets, ("I NEEEEEED MY WHITES!") but I convinced him that it was a special treat to have mommy's whites for a while. I turned on some music and was about to slip out the door when he sat bolt-upright, fully awake for the first time during the entire process. "But Santa won't come if we are washing clothes! You have to turn it off! NOW! Go turn it off!" The poor little guy was starting to panic.

I asked him why he thought Santa wouldn't come to our house if the washing machine was running. Repeating back to me my bedtime warning to him from a few hours before, he explained that Santa won't come if we are awake. I was confused. We weren't going to be awake. "Santa will THINK we are awake because he will hear the noise!" My heart broke at the sight of my sad little guy. I explained that it was all going to be fine, Santa is okay with washing machines and knows that sometimes people have accidents at night and need to wash things. He would still come, we just had to go back to sleep. I crawled into bed with Little Man for a minute and held him. I was relieved when he began to fall back to sleep quickly, and I snuck out of his room to go play my part as Santa and place all of the gifts under the tree. 

Christmas morning I woke and transferred the load into the drier before Johnny even made a peep. He actually slept until about 8:30, (late for him) and everything was good to go by the time he came downstairs. Johnny forgot all about his Santa worries, and spent his first minutes of Christmas searching for the Christmas Pickle. He even got a "Pickle Present" surprise when he found the ornament! The rest of the morning was spent laughing and excitedly forcing us all to pause every ten minutes mid-unwrapping to play with whatever new toy he had just opened. 

To date, we've had 8 Christmases with various family members and have one left to go on Thursday. It has been a wonderful holiday, and we have been very blessed. I was actually amazed that we made it the whole way through with Johnny still believing in Santa. A week or so after his first encounter with Santa at the mall, the local fire company sent Santa around his grandparent's neighborhood to visit with kids while we were at their house. As I had expected, Johnny noticed the difference, even in the dark. (Check out the video I took here!) Thankfully Santa rolled with it and was able to deflect Johnny's inquisition. So, this year remained a Santa Success! We will have to see what next year brings... 

Happy Holidays, everyone!