For The Holidays

[Guest Monster]

My older brother relayed a story - previously unknown to me - at this years family festivities:

Seems as a young boy (still in the pajamas with the feet) he waited up for Santa Claus. He waited and waited, fighting sleep, until finally mother nature demanded he depart for 30 seconds. Shortly after he departed it seems our father quickly loaded presents around the tree and shouted out a rather believable "Ho-Ho-Ho!"

With this, my brother raced down the stairs (business unfinished) only to find - much to his amazement - that Santa had been there, left presents, eaten the cookies and was gone in the 30 seconds he had to be out of the room. (I would venture a guess that dad - AKA "Santa" was still struggling to swallow the last of the cookies when my brother reached the living room).

Maybe it was the season, maybe it was the spirits, and maybe it was my brother sharing this for the first time ever and mother qualifying it by wondering if the whole experienced hadn't scarred him for life - but we rolled with laughter!

[Guest dubya]

Monster, thanks for the laugh. One of the most pleasant things about the holidays is hearing stories like that. It brought to mind a Christmas story that bought a few more years of Santa watching for me.

I must have been around 8 or 9 years old, and was starting to get suspicious that it was really mom and dad who were leaving all the toys. So I asked an older cousin about this (13 years old). He told me that while my mom and dad do buy lots of the presents, Santa still comes and leaves the smaller presents that I would find in my stocking. When I told him that I really didn't believe that, because how could Santa come down our chimney, he laughed and said that was the part that was made up. He said that while Santa really didn't have flying reindeer and didn't come down chimneys, he did in fact still visit our house. He did so because he rode around in a big black limosene instead, and he had all the toys in it. To get in the house, he used a skeleton key that could open any door and would get in that way!!!

As corny as that may sound, it in some way made sense to a skeptical 8 year old. I believed in Santa (albeit the limo riding Santa) for a few more years as a result.

[MoJo]

Dubya: Believed (past tense)???? I think we need Santa more now than ever....

Go read "Yes Vriginia, there is a Santa Claus" again....

www.noradsanta.com has a copy of it (yes, NORAD tracks Santa on his journey!).