Why we believe

Things to tell Santa
Originally uploaded by kristn1284

A few years ago a friend told me a story about how she has shopped and shopped for her son to assure he had the most wonderful Christmas ever. Then on Christmas Eve he announced “the only thing” he wanted was some obscure game and he just knew Santa would bring it. She tried to explain that Santa had already packed his sleigh a few days before and since this was a last minute item it probably was not on the packing list for their house. He smiled confidently and said Santa would bring it, she felt awful at the thought of his reaction the next morning. As it turned out her good friend and next door neighbor had bought the same thing for her nephew that she was not going to see until New Years Eve, thus giving my friend time to go out and replace the gift for her neighbor and wrap up the original one to put under their tree. The look on her son’s face, the knowing – the believing was worth any bit of hassle this may have caused. She remarked to me, Santa does work in mysterious ways.

So last night on the way home from Church Annabelle was starting to crank out a bit, it was close to bedtime, we were off our routine etc. I asked her – “What do you think Santa Claus is going to bring you?” Her reply – “A Frosty Cookie”. I have no idea where this came from, out of the stratosphere; she has never had a Frosty Cookie in her life, let alone know what one is. What was she talking about?

Here is where the Santa magic fits into our story. A few weeks ago I was out grocery shopping and I walked past an end case that held a bunch of break & bake cookies. Something made me stop, something made me think “if I go into labor and we do not hold the annual cookie bake off at least I can whip some of these up so we have some sort of Christmas cookies to put on a plate” I reached into the bin to pick up some plain sugar cookies that I was thinking would be cute with some sprinkles when I saw a lone box of sugar cookies with Snowmen on them. Something made me grab them; something made me buy that last box of Frosty cookies.

Well we had the cookie bake off – we have lots of different delicious cookies in the house but as Annabelle said last night “A Frosty Cookie”, my mind went to the box of break & bake Frosty cookies sitting in the back of my downstairs refrigerator. After she went to bed, we made them up, put them in a container on the table still thinking that she would have forgotten all about them by morning.

After she opened a few of her gifts this morning she looked around a bit puzzled and said “what about a Frosty cookie?”, I said “check the dining room table” The grin on her face when she spied them was worth the entire universe to me. There it was – Santa in action, working his Christmas magic on all of us. For setting the whole chain of events in motion leading up to my little girl eating 2 sugar cookies before breakfast (and about 3 more that day, a definite treat from her regular diet). I never knew I could feel this kind of happiness – the kind you get from giving somebody you love something they truly want, the kind that keeps them believing. The kind of Christmas story that may seem inconsequential, but reminded me of why we say “Yes, I believe”