Monday, December 13, 2010

Excitement and Anticipation in a Small Town

Tis the season to be jolly, and to have at least three different opportunities per Saturday morning to see Santa. Although big city conveniences are limited living in a rural community (have I ever mentioned I live nearly 30 minutes from the nearest Target??), the opportunities to participate in cute community focused events are plentiful, especially during the holiday season.

My girls are very excited for the arrival of the dude in the big red suit, and this anticipation is only intensified by the nine thousand (okay, well three) potential Breakfast with Santas they could have attended this past weekend. Thankfully, they are just still mystified by the fact that Santa can be in Yates City, Hanna City, and at Josie's preschool on the same Saturday. They aren't to the questioning phase yet, but rather devised a plan as we drove from visiting Santa to Anna's YMCA basketball game about some magical, invisible car that transported Santa between the different locales. Anna nearly stumped the preschool Santa by saying that she had seen him at school that week. Thankfully, our preschool Santa was a good actor, and just went with it.

We are so blessed to live in a small community where the Santas are as plentiful as syrup flowing at a pancake breakfast. When I get frustrated reading the different Facebook statuses of city friends talking about their trips "downtown" to see a show, or just running out to IKEA (our nearest one is THREE HOURS away....makes my trip a yearly pilgrimage), or enjoying the after Christmas sales at Nordstrom truly after Christmas, not in February, I have to remember how my girls are making memories here. They are making friends that they will have for their entire school life (which can be good and bad, I know!), as they will attend the same school, in the same building for the rest of their school days. We are so lucky to have a community that knows where we live based upon who our neighbors are or who rented our house after my grandparents moved into town. Life is good here, even if we are far away from what some consider "civilization."

Fortunately, Santa sees no place too small or too far off the beaten path to show up at a pancake breakfast, or three, on a Saturday morning.

1 comment:

  1. When I was little I was told the real Santa lived at Marshall Fields in Chicago. All the others were Santa's helpers. It worked for quite awhile. Hope your holidays are happy and healthy!!

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