Fairy tales

For some reason, only the female employees in my office seem to congregate at the table in the break room to eat lunch. Not surprisingly, since many of them are mothers, the talk often turns to kids. Today the talk started with a discussion of the going rate for a tooth by the Tooth Fairy. Appallingly the concensus was $3-$5 per tooth.

Talk of this friendly figment soon turned to that of Santa. One coworker complained about a tradition that her husband's family has where two elves leave gifts and a note a couple days before Christmas. Everyone agreed that you have to be quick on your feet to answer questions about why Santa might have given a gently used bike, the gift labels from Santa are in your handwriting, or Santa uses the same wrapping paper as Mom and Dad. I laughed along, sharing stories from my own childhood and empathizing with my coworkers.

It was a great lunch hour, furnishing some overdue bonding. I didn't realize that I'd been taking mental notes on kids and family traditions until I was walking away, and I skipped a step when I realized that I might never be one with my coworkers in hiding Santa's wrapping paper and mixing up reindeer feed.