Fold My Laundry Please

Yesterday we had a little bit of last minute shopping to take care of.  Nothing big, Andrew wanted to pick something up at Walmart and I needed to get some groceries from Albertson’s.  Since the two stores are in the same shopping center, we decided to split up and save a bit of time.  I took the kids with me and we headed off to get some food.  When we got inside, we saw Santa sitting there in the front of the store!  He was the best looking Santa that I’ve ever seen in person!  In fact, I’m pretty sure he was the real deal!  He had jingle bells sewn all down his hat, his beard was real, he was wearing real leather boots (not those slip on thingys that come in the costume kits), he had on a wide leather belt that had studs and rivets in holiday designs, and he had a large leather pouch hanging from his belt that you just knew had "The List" in it!  I asked the kids if they wanted to talk to Santa, but no one did.  (Gideon is a bit sketchy on the whole "Santa Claus in Person" thing and Ethan said, "I already told Santa that I wanted a guitar.")  So we just sat there and watched Santa talk to the kids for a while.  That’s when Santa convinced me he was real.  A Mexican lady and her little girl walked up to Santa.  The Big Guy leaned over and spoke to the little girl.  "How are you today?" he said.  The girl just stood there, staring at him with big wide eyes.  Then Santa said, "Habla Espanol?"  The little girls eyes got even wider and her face erupted in the biggest smile I’ve ever seen.  "Como esta?" he said, and then proceeded to ask her all about what she wanted for Christmas and such, all in Spanish!  I told the kids "See, Santa knows every language in the world!" and then my eyes welled up with tears and we quickly headed off to continue shopping because it would never do for me to sit there crying in the grocery store!

After we had paid for our things, we heard an announcement that our local fire department had arrived to take Santa back to the North Pole.  This caused Ethan to remark, "Santa doesn’t ride on fire trucks!  He uses reindeer!"  So I quickly explained that the reindeer have to get all rested up for their big flight and the fire department was nice enough to give him a ride home so that he can get ready, too.  As we headed out the door, we discussed the price of regular gas vs. magic gas and wondered whether we could get some of the magic kind for our own car.  We were just in time to see Santa climbing up onto the fire truck.  We all waved and the kids shouted things like, "Bye Santa!", "See you tomorrow!", and "Fly safe!"  And me, I just stood there trying hard not to burst into tears right there in the parking lot!  He might have been one of these guys, but I’m pretty sure he was the real thing!

Today is going to be a busy day!  We have cookies to bake (Santa likes ‘em fresh!), rooms to clean up (Santa hates tripping over toys in the middle of the night, too), and this evening we’re hosting our family’s Christmas-get-together-thingy at our house.  It should be a lot of fun, food, and PRESENTS!  Andrew’s brother Edward is in town for the holidays so it will be nice seeing him again.  (Side Note:  After New Year’s, Edward’s girlfriend is joining him here to meet the family.  Could things be getting serious?  Hmmmm…..)  And to make everything perfect, the weather has been cooperating beautifully this year!  All our snow had disappeared and then Friday it snowed all day leaving us with three or four inches on the ground.  Then it snowed all night last night putting down at least six more inches!  The weather guys keep telling us that there is one more cold front coming through our area and we’ll be getting snow all night tonight and into tomorrow morning!  "It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…."  Sing to me, Bing!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!