[Graffur]

You said "I thought everyone was just playing up to the same fun thought-experiment" which implies you did that thinking at the time. I'm not questioning whether you knew how to breathe or understood the mechanics of it. I can only go by the information you provided.

Your reply even shows you don't understand the magic of Christmas that some children felt.

> I feel grateful to my parents that they managed to feed imagination without deceit

You're framing this deceit as a bad thing. What do you think about parents pretending a child's spoon is an airplane?