The TOOTH FAIRY

Not sure why I started thinking about this particular tradition but happened to as I was laying in bed last night listening to my husband snore!  I really have been focused on tradition, rituals, and family and I happened to remember one that I thought you might find interesting.  The TOOTH FAIRY! 

Having girls has always allowed me the privilege of doing things just a little more feminine than what some people do things.  The Tiede girls grew up knowing how to work hard, respect people and be the best friend that they could be to the people who loved them.  I remember well telling them to be pretty inside before worrying about being pretty outside because if you took care of the inner beauty the rest would follow.  That being said I was all about making them girly girls.  Ashley learned the girly girl lesson later in life and has learned to balance it well with being her daddy's "boy".  She can hunt and shoot with the best of them but very much loves her purses, clothes and jewelry.  Lena is well...a princess.  She has been since she was big enough to get into my makeup basket and paint her face.  Now, I am sure you are all wondering what this has to do with the tooth fairy.  Well, as most people know the tooth fairy comes while you are sleeping and takes the tooth that you lost (or had pulled) from your head and replaces it with some type of monatery reward.  When I was a kid that usually meant a quarter or maybe a dollar if the Fairy was feeling really generous!  The tooth fairy always visited the Tiede girls and took their teeth to....where ever teeth go when they fall out of your head.  To keep the girls asleep, I asked the fairy not to put money under the girls pillows but instead we put the tooth in a glass of water and this is when the magic happened! The tooth fairy (and we all know that fairies are female), she would gently reach into the glass of water, take out the tooth and drop in a quarter.  But the magic came  when she reached into the water, it would magically turn the color of the dress she was wearing.  The girls were always more excited to see the color of the water than they were to recieve the quarter that had been placed there.  Red, blue, green, yellow orange and yes, purple were just some of the dress colors.  I know that this will be something that the girls carry on with their own daughters, when and if they bless me with a granddaughter.  And if that doesn't happen, we may have to request a special male tooth fairy with a different color baseball cap!