The Man in Red

The preparations for the big guy's visit have begun. We had to pick just the right cookie Pepperidge Farms Ginger Men, we set aside one special packet of Swiss Miss, and dusted off the special Santa plate. At the grocery store today I bought special Reindeer carrots, the ones with the greens still attached and we polished one red apple to shiny perfection. The apple is for Rudolph, the red ones help make his red nose shiny. 

Little is on his best behavior, visions of sugar plums are already dancing in his head and have been for weeks. He's working on the letter that will be so carefully placed by the plate of cookies and we have the Santa Tracker bookmarked.

I know it won't be much longer and I'll have to pack away the Santa plate, and there won't be any need to buy the carrots with the greens attached, but I'll enjoy every crazy moment because the magic of Santa only lasts so long.

You Better Watch Out!

Around this time of year I remind Little that "Santa is always watching." Since he's 8 I know his Santa days are numbered, so I cherish every minute of it. We bake the cookies, feed the reindeer, write the letters, and last year we even tried to catch him on video...but he was too smart for us and with a jingle and a very deep "Ho Ho Ho" he shut off the camera before leaving any evidence.

We were out an about today, and on the way home we were stopped at a red light. Stopped next to us in a Jeep Cherokee was "Santa" all decked out in full gear. Full snow-white beard, long white hair, furry red hat, if I didn't know better I'd swear he was "The Guy".

So excitedly I said, "Hey look! There's Santa!" 

Little glanced over just as "Santa" held his fingers to his lips and took a long drag from a cigarette. Sigh.

Not exactly the image I wanted ingrained in Little's brain.

"A stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth and the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath."

Apparently Santa has been a smoker for years, but times certainly have changed, and the pipe smoking Santa has become politically incorrect.

It's  just my feeling, that with "the suit" comes a little responsibility to behave and act in a certain way. 

Because Santa, you may be "always watching", but so are the kids.