Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for December 18, 2013

Black male?

To quote Niles (the Butler)…

“A blind man in New Jersey saw that one coming, Sir.”

now what… Granny blackmailing Val?

Seriously? Holly still believes in Santa? Seriously?

Let’s not call it blackmail, I like to think of it as incentive!

Where’s Evie ?

To the readers who question why Holly believes in Santa … I say Holly and Alix are still at the ages where Christmas is magical. Maybe both don’t believe, however they WANT to believe. When my sister and I were their ages we played up the Santa thing. We knew our mom did it all. But it would have been no fun Christmas morning without the gifts and stockings filled with mascara and lip gloss. Plus, this is a comic strip. It’s supposed to make you smile and remember.

What you throw at somebody it comes right back to you. It’s called karma Alix.

As Hawkeye put, "We prefer extortion..\\//_

Now I’m an adult and I still believe in Santa as I’m a Santa when we buy gifts for family. I also know the truer meaning of Christmas is we celebrate Christ’s birth.

So Alix how does feel shoe on the other side with your mom writing about blackmail you do on your sister.

Not that it matters, I’m on winter break until January. I’m doing well on-line subjects. I’m getting closer to Medical Coding.

I wonder how Holly is doing on her class homework.

When I was in the second grade, my classmates would simper and tell me, “I know who Santa is!” So I went home and asked Mom, “Tell me who Santa is!” “Do you really want to know?” I said yes, and after some back-and-forth she said, “It’s your mom and dad.” I thought, “Well, that makes sense!” I also felt gratitude that my parents had gone to all that trouble to make me happy. Different kids react to the realization in different ways. (I’ve heard of a young man’s suing his parents because they ruined his life and caused utter depression by lying to him about Santa.)

“The bell still rings for me, as it does for all who truly believe.”

More like extortion.

You’d think the mom would appreciate Alix finding a way to get Holly to be nice. She should be thanking Alix, not punishing her.

Uh oh!

Actually, that’s more extortion than blackmail.

And now the downside of Alix’s plan.

I find it funny that those who cry Blackmail/Extortion the most have no issue with the “Be Good or you don’t Get any Gifts” guy.

Val has the girls being nice, and she wants to stop it. Dumb very dumb.

I’ve always liked the phrase “Wait—what?”. Ha.

Good one today.

My daughter was 14 when I realized she didn’t believe in Santa anymore.