My four year old son walked up to me yesterday while I was setting the table for dinner.

“Uhm” he asked hesitangly”Is it too late to add things to my Christmas list?”

“I think so,” I said, eyeing the three feet of snow piled up outside the window.

“OK,” he said resignedly and then looked out past me, deep in thought. “Dad can we run out to the store and buy a whip?”

“Why?” I asked.

“Uhm. I put a lion on my Christmas list but I forgot to put down a whip. And if the lion shows up and I don’t have a whip we could all be in trouble.”

“Oh,” I said because I couldn’t think of what else to say to his perfectly logical question.