Ho! Ho! Ho!

Whenever we pass an inflated Santa on someone's front lawn, Rudy gasps and smiles and screams. "SANNA!" Each time she sees a Santa decoration, it's like the first time. She is gleeful and surprised and proud to have found it: in the grocery store, on the children's library's door, on a table beside the elevator at my mom's assisted living.

But she wasn't so sure about visiting with Santa himself. Marley and I talked to her a lot about how we were going to visit Santa soon, and that she could sit on his lap and tell him what she wants for Christmas. "Nooooooo," she whimpered. "I no wannnnew." We told her she could sit beside him, and that didn't seem any more appealing. But what about next to Marley and Santa? Sure!

And what do you know? The real Santa was in Natick last week, and we made a special trip to see him, and even though Rudy spent at least half of our turn with him frozen five feet away with wide eyes and Lambie covering most of her face, she eventually sidled over to his big green chair to sit by her sister and the kindest, gentlest Santa I have ever met. He was definitely the real thing.

Marley told Santa she wants a pink pony for Christmas. A PINK PONY? She and I worked out a whole other list in advance that did not include this novelty. We'll see how Santa interprets that one. Rudy, in all her Tootily-Laid-Back-Glory, asked for one thing, in a breathless, nervous, excited, little voice: "Toys." I'm pretty sure Santa will grant her request and then some.