"If you don't go to sleep, Santa Clause cannot come," is what our mother said every Christmas Eve until we were old enough to know otherwise. Here in this photo, "otherwise" is becoming the reality for me. I'm the little girl and my older brother has just told me "Mom IS Santa Claus". My sister's face betrays her emotion as she thinks "as soon as that shutter clicks I am going to rip his head off." She did too. There was a big scene with Mother yelling "you didn't have to tell her!", which pretty much sealed the deal for me--no Santa Claus.

Little brother is joyous. He does not know what was said, but he hears "Santa Clause." "Yay!" He will fall asleep as soon as the shutter clicks. Photo taken in the living room of our apartment in a small town in northern Minnesota. I'm 4, sister is 9, brother is 2 and the traitor is 6. View full size.