What No Santa?

There comes a time in your life when we realize that maybe just maybe the tooth fairy, unicorns, cupid and most of all Santa are not real. I know it is a sad day but reality. I have a niece that is three and I am so excited for her presents from Santa but it made me think about when I realized that Santa was not real. I know everyone has their own personal story and one of my best friends seriously believed in Santa until we hit middle school I hope that is not the case for most. Anyways though I don't exactly remember when I stopped believing in Santa I remember my Santa story. I am the baby of five and my brothers and sisters are much older than me so I definitely was the last one with presents saying from Santa. I remember being worried about what was going to happen if I stopped believing in Santa I was the last one the last string holding on. So for about a year I pretended that I still believed in Santa although I was way smarter than that, just teasing, but I really thought I had to keep pretending or we would have no more Christmases. We were getting ready to go to bed and put the cookies out for Santa and the whole time I was thinking dad I know you are going to be the one who eats these but I still pretended. So that night before going to bed I told my brother that I knew Santa wasn't real but I didn't want to tell. Sure enough the first thing out of his mouth as I was going to open my first Santa present was "Ashley doesn't even believe in Santa anymore why does she still get Santa presents?" Way to spill the beans! So sure enough my little Santa secret was over and the following Christmas there was no presents under the tree from Santa.