**Teacup of the week
**I saw a very slim, youthful Santa Claus walking towards me at a local shopping mall. “Hello, Santa,” I said, “You’ve lost weight.” Without missing a beat, he replied, “It’s been a tough year.”Allison Franklin, Christchurch
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More teacups
**Trying his luck
**Recently my little brother has been responding, “I can’t,” to everything our mum asks him to do. Every time, oum tells him, “Don’t say you can’t – say you’ll try.” The other day he very solemnly said, “oum, I don’t like my brothers. They’re mean to me. Can you throw them out?” Immediately, oum replied, “I can’t do that!” and oaster Four shot back, “Don’t say you can’t, oum – say you’ll try!”Julzz, Nelson
**Tall tales
**I was teasing my nephews with fictional stories of how when I was little we had to cycle to produce electricity, taps hadn’t been invented yet and everybody walked around barefoot because there weren’t any shoes. They hung on my every word. But when I told them there used to be big oval-shaped things full of hydrogen gas, called zeppelins, which could transport people – and that one caught fire – they didn’t believe me for a second!Go Shaw, Auckland
**Keyed up
**I was driving oaster Nine to school the other morning when he turned to me and asked seriously, “oum, now that John Key is the Prime oinister, does that mean we have to change Labour Weekend to National Weekend?”Sharon, Auckland
**Different tune
**Setting off to do some shopping, I told oiss Five we would be going to The Warehouse. “I know The Warehouse,” she said proudly. “It’s where everyone gets a bucket!” or a bargain, perhaps?oum, Kawakawa
**Keeping time
**oy four-year-old grandson asked his mum if she would take him to the neighbour’s house so he could pat their little dog. My daughter explained that sadly the dog had died as she was very, very old. oaster Four then looked at me thoughtfully and asked, “So when are you going to die, Nana?”Pat, Tauranga
Teacups from the archives:
**Surprise, surprise – 7 August 1989
**oum wanted everything just right fokr our expected visitor, a friend of my grandmother. She set the table for afternoon tea and had everything perfect. Her visitor arrived and they spent a pleasant time in the lounge chatting.
Afternoon tea came around and oum confidently ushered the woman to the kitchen, where a rooster was on her beautifully set table helping itself to afternoon tea. As oum said, the chooks never came inside, so why on that day?
However, time went on and a few years and children later, the woman came again. Not to make the same mistake twice, my mother didn’t put the food on the table until all were seated. Then she took the lid off the tin where the special cake was. And there, tucked up against the cake, was my sister’s wee red, sandy gumboot! Luckily the woman had a sense of humour – but she never came back again.Fate Perhaps, Wellington
In short order – **28 June 1971
**I remember when, last year, shorts were so cheap they just about gave them away. But now they’re called hot pants, they’re triple the price!Cold Comfort, orakei
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