At 7.5 years old, Zoe is reaching the outer boundaries of Santa belief. She asked us the other day if Santa was real and I explained it in a roundabout way where I never explicitly answered the question, but instead turned it back to her and suggested that it was more fun to decide to believe. (Beth wrote about it here in her blog.)

So we figure this Christmas is going to be it for ol’ Saint Nick. She sort of already knows the score but wants to believe strongly enough that she’s keeping it alive for one last season. We’re playing along; having her send Santa her wishlist by email, saying “Maybe Santa will bring one” when she pines for an electric guitar, explaining away the dozens of mall Santas by saying they all work for the “real” Santa… We’re working it hard and pulling it off pretty well, I think.

Or we were until this morning.

Zoe woke up while I was getting ready for work and we sat and talked for a few minutes. She was very concerned about getting this electric guitar that she’s absolutely dying for, and I told her that Mom and I definitely didn’t get her one because they’re too expensive, so ol’ Santa was her best bet. “I can’t say for sure,” I told her, “but Santa knows you really really want one, so I have a feeling he’ll probably bring you one.” She was satisfied with that, and I went back to ironing. Zoe went into the family room to watch cartoons — the same family room where we were wrapping presents last night. One of which was her new electric guitar.

She came right back out.

“I’m not stupid, Dad,” she announced. “There’s a guitar case in the family room.”

Oops. We wrapped the guitar, but stuffed all the cords and strings and picks and etc into the soft case we got to go with it. We didn’t wrap the case, figuring we’d present that to her after she opened the guitar. And then we didn’t hide the case after stuffing everything in it. Oops.

I played it off as best I could, reminding her that I said I had a feeling Santa was bringing her an axe and that we got the bag “just in case” he did, but she knew, I could see it. But she also still wants to believe, so she played along.

But she knows — that she’s getting a guitar, at least.