Where did Santa go?

Every night, Sophie asks me about Santa and his exact whereabouts. She seems to be a bit baffled at the fact we shoved this person down her throat for almost two months straight, convinced her she needed to be the best little girl in the western hemisphere if she wanted him to visit, and used him as leverage in every desperate situation....and now, with no real warning, there's no mention of him whatsoever.

So, I explained that Santa is back home at the North Pole resting from his big trip delivering presents to children around the world. We seem to have this repeated conversation over and over. Finally, Sophie suggested we visit Santa. I let her know the North Pole is very far away and it would be a very long plane ride to see him. To which she responds, "Okay, we need to bring the DVD, Elmo, and Sheep (her Lambchop stuffed animal from Aunt Ellie)." Great. Of course, I backtrack and let her know Santa is too tired to take any visitors right now and we should let him rest up so he can prepare for next year's Christmas.

Not sure if she bought it, but it is surprising she is anxious to go and visit him but refused to sit on his lap for a picture when he was actually here. When we were in SF we took her to see Santa all the way up on the 7th floor of Macy's. I write this because we waited for about 10 different elevators before we finally got up there. There was literally no one in line and we thought we had our chance and were willing to do ANYTHING to get her to sit on his lap since there were few witnesses to the event. Of course, Tim and I almost broke Santa's legs because we were both sitting on his lap while Sophie still adamantly refused. Instead, she reached her hand out and shook his hand. And that was our visit to Santa this year. Apparently he made quite an impression since we are still discussing him two weeks later!!!