Jenna's belief

Jenna stood in the living room this morning and looked torn apart. Just stood there, and looked down on the floor while leaning up against the couch.

"What's wrong, Jenna?" I asked. Nothing. I don't have to tell you.

Okay. Mornings are busy, so I moved on and figured I'd address it later.

She talked to Russ this morning, and he e-mailed me asking to ask her what was wrong.

So, I went to lunch at Jenna's school to cheer her up some, and she was in a very good mood. I commented on her very cheerful mood, and mentioned it was much different than this morning. She looked puzzled.

I told her she was very sad this morning, and she said, "I don't have to tell you why." which is her right, of course. I gently pressed, and she said, "It is only a tradition in Puerto Rico."

I'm like, what? She repeated it. No clue, so I pressed a little more.

She placed a shoe box with grass under her bed a couple of nights ago. Today -- apparently only in Puerto Rico -- it is called Three Kings Day. On the night before (much like Christmas Eve), children who put a box of grass or whatever under their bed receive "gold" from a king the next morning. So this morning, she didn't have anything in her box and was really disappointed.

Then I remembered. A couple of days ago she took a shoebox and said she was going outside. She came back with grass in it and went to her room. She told me, "There's going to be a very big surprise on the 6th." I asked her what it would be and she wouldn't tell me. Said, "I'll tell you on the 6th."

I accidentally found the shoebox yesterday under her bed when picking up her room, and quickly pushed it back. I had no idea what was going on.

Today, when Jenna got to school, her classmate Jake told her "it's only a tradition in Puerto Rico," so she was all, "Oh, okay, cool."

To her, it probably was like being rejected from Santa Claus.

Bless her.