Yesterday at school the grade ones had a teddy bears picnic. Alec chose his teddy to bring and we set off to school. There were 25 very excited children that morning. Instead of lunch, mums sent in a plate of party food. I saw a vast sea of sweets so I ducked home and made them some party club sandwiches... with cheese and vegemite.

When I went back Alec saw me and with this totally amazed and enthralled look on his little face he pointed to the life sized teddy bear that had come to visit. To him and many of the others it was a real teddy and I loved that so much that at six they can still have the capacity to believe in the unbelievable. Of course by the time he got home from school some little wretch had told him it was another teacher dressed up, but then they saw that teacher while the teddy bear was still there so that backfired on him and Alec still would like to believe it was a real teddy but I could see he had his doubts.

Now I just hope we can get another Christmas in with them believing in Santa.