{"id":798,"date":"2023-12-19T20:44:17","date_gmt":"2023-12-20T03:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/?p=798"},"modified":"2023-12-19T20:44:18","modified_gmt":"2023-12-20T03:44:18","slug":"santa-isnt-real-and-other-disappointments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/2023\/12\/19\/santa-isnt-real-and-other-disappointments\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa isn\u2019t Real, and Other Disappointments"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/img_4898-1-300x300.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-797\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/img_4898-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/img_4898-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/img_4898-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/img_4898-1.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ll tell you what was worse than finding out Santa wasn\u2019t real. Let\u2019s face it, as long my gifts kept rolling in, I couldn\u2019t care less.  For some this should be the first revelation that adults don\u2019t always tell the truth and that watching the disappointment on a child\u2019s face can bring devious entertainment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My biggest childhood disappointment was the Snipe. I hadn\u2019t even heard of a Snipe until my Dad and (paternal) grandfather invited me on my Snipe hunt. I was so excited. Had to wait for dusk. Was provided a brown paper bag and flashlight. The hunt was on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They drug it on for probably half an hour too. I was chasing that snipe that they swore was there and was hoarding it towards me. And when that mythical creature entered my bag I was ecstatic. I shut the bag up with a quickness. Held it tightly closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We went inside the house. 1<sup>st<\/sup> red flag. Grandma would not let animals in the house, except for the vicious dog, Trix, they kept in the dark basement with the sump pump they would put me in if I misbehaved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There I sat on the floor of the den. Shaking from excitement. I remember saying, \u201cI\u2019ve never caught a live animal before!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cShake it! Makes sure he\u2019s still in there,\u201d Grandpa said. I shook it. Yup. Still in there, but not moving around. 2<sup>nd<\/sup> red flag. I opened the bag ever so carefully, waiting for it to come rushing out. Nothing happened. \u201cDump the bag,\u201d I was told. I did. And this smooth rock comes sliding out and onto the floor. Perplexed, I stared at it for a few seconds before I realized I\u2019d been had.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Good times! One of my favorite memories with my grandpa. Right above the time he made me think I was begin chased by a bear in the woods. But that\u2019s a different story for another time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Santa isn\u2019t Real, and Other Disappointments. Or that time I was tricked with a Snipe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":797,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[441],"tags":[445,444,446,443,442],"class_list":["post-798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-childhood-memories","tag-childhood","tag-lies","tag-memories","tag-santa","tag-snipe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/img_4898-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":799,"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798\/revisions\/799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}