Remember the story "The Emperor's New Clothes?"  More to the point, do you remember that the one who could see most clearly was a small child?  If it is true that small children see most clearly, than I am married to Santa Claus.  What a revelation!

Without the help of a small child, I would never have imagined that FogieKnight had such a rich secret life.  I've been married to him for almost 24 years and I've never seen him chose to wear red.  Although he is a few pounds heavier than when I met him, I doubt anyone would suggest that he had a belly that shook at all, let alone as though it were a bowlful of jelly.  The man is tall and lanky.  He's over six feet and, if I were to guess, weighs 175 pounds tops.  Rounded is not a word usually associated with him.

Perhaps it is the beard.  He does have a beard.  I've never been completely sure that he has a chin.  I've never seen his chin.  When I first met him, the beard was really quite red—not so much to match his hair as to contrast with it.  Brown hair, blonde mustache, red beard.  But now it is rapidly going white.

So, last night's revelation came as a bit of a surprise.  The evening started with me getting home from work late and not managing to get dinner together.  No surprise there.  It happens from time to time.  We (mainly FogieKnight) decided to go out to eat as the most likely route for actually getting dinner.

As the hostess showed up to our seat, we went near the next table.  A family was sitting there with all sorts of very blonde children.  The youngest, in a high-chair-type seat looked as though she were approximately fifteen months.  As we passed her, her eyes got very, very big and she twisted around and almost upside down to look at us.  I twisted around, in hopes of amusing her, and thought her reaction was in response to me.  I should not have been so self-centered but I did not know it yet.

Suddenly, she started jabbering very excitedly to her mother.  Her mother turned to us, looked at FogieKnight, and said, "She thinks you are Santa Claus."  (Kat was not at the table at that moment and had to be filled in later.)  FogieKnight grinned at the little girl and she grinned back.

And then he ordered a beer.  A beer?  I was appalled.  How could Santa order a beer?  FogieKnight explained that if Santa could smoke a pipe, as many a Santa he had seen in his youth could do, Santa could have a beer.  As a Jewish child and later a Jewish adult, I've never known that much about Santa but I was horrified.  Shouldn't Santa set a better example?

And, as I nagged a bit, it became clear.  For sure, if FogieKnight is Santa Claus, I am Mrs. Claus.