Flying High

Every year, our friendly neighborhood firemen bring Santa around on one of their trucks so that all the kids can wave to him. They always, always hit our neighborhood just after we've put the girls down for the night, and this year was no exception.

I was in the guest room still wrangling with Abbie when I heard the tell-tale sirens, so I jumped up and yelled out, "Girls, Santa's coming!" They knew exactly what I meant. I opened their door just in time to see Katie, in her excitement and fear that she'd miss Santa, take a flying leap out of the top bunk, land (on her feet) on a pillow and go charging out the door. She was like a little Gummi Bear ("bouncing here and there and everywhere.")

This is the kid who never ever, ever (never ever? Never EVER!) makes a move without first analyzing every angle of the situation. This is a girl who solves puzzles before actually putting them together. But at the sound of those sirens she took a rare flight (literally) of fancy and just......let go. So unlike her. But so sweet to see!

And after all that, we still missed Santa. Why do they drive by so fast? Chris eventually picked them all up at once, and carried them (shoeless and coatless and heartbroken) down the sidewalk so that they could at least see Santa as he turned onto the next road. That seemed to satisfy them, and they happily went back to bed after that.

The funniest thing about this is that Katie has been expressing extreme scepticism about Santa this year. She recently asked me how, if Santa is a real person, he hasn't died, because of course all people eventually die. How the heck do you answer that? I just babbled on for a few minutes without really saying anything, and then changed the subject because she had me completely stumped. So not only was it surprising to see Katie so unusually impetuous and childlike, it was surprising to see this reaction to Santa, whom she may not actually fully believe in.

This year has been so cool, with all three of the older girls being so excited and so wrapped up in the magic of Christmas, and last night was just the perfect example. Once I knew Katie had not actually hurt herself, and my heart had begun beating again, I just couldn't help but laugh and laugh and laugh at the whole thing. So cute, so sweet, so innocent and excited! Oh my gosh, Christmas has never been so much fun!