And those heartwarming holiday stories start pouring in!

During the election last November my youngest child was especially interested in the increased cigarette tax. We talked a lot about diseases caused by smoking and how they're treated. Whenever we were out and he saw someone smoking he'd say (sometimes quite loudly), "That person is going to have to pay a lot of money for their cigarettes, and the goverment will give it to hospitals to take care of them when they get sick from it."

Then, exactly one month later, we got out the Christmas decorations. The kids were arranging their special things, including some little snowmen we'd made from a kit a few years ago. My youngest was too little to make his own at the time, so I had made it for him...complete with a stocking cap, little mittens and a tiny corncob pipe. He brought it to me yesterday and said, "Here's the snowman you made me, who smokes." (Special emphasis on the words YOU and SMOKES). I just can't wait to hear what he has to say about Santa's cholesterol level if we put out cookies.