Thursday, December 11, 2014

Prepare for Christmas

This will be Caroline's first Christmas with us, and likely her first Christmas ever.  She's been learning quickly about Santa Claus (aka "Ho-ho-ho") from various cartoons and recognizes him when she sees him or one of his impersonators in public. 

Ol' Baba makes a decent easy chair AND he's got cartoons about Ho-ho-ho!
Caroline, my wife and my in-laws were having breakfast at a pancake house when a gentleman with a long, white beard and wearing a red sweatshirt came in (could it have been the man himself getting breakfast after an all-night practice flight?  Could be...).  I'm told that Caroline's eyes got as big as saucers and she muttered, "Ho-ho-ho!" She proceeded to visit the fellow and thus got a candy cane and some face-time with St. Nick to go along with her pancakes.  Too bad I didn't have forewarning, else I could have asked her to put in some requests for me!

Along with Santa, of course, comes the tree.  I pulled our little tree out of the garage, and Chrystal decorated it.  She had some help from a certain elf.


It may be that Caroline did rather more playing than decorating, but I'm pretty sure she had a good time.

Look at the pretty toys!
Speaking of toys, like small children everywhere, Caroline can get as much - if not more - fun from the box than she can from what's in it.

"I see you!"
Somehow, I'm reminded of the Martian baby "Mot" in the old WB cartoon "Rocket-bye Baby".
With Caroline around, I think that Christmas is going to regain some of the magic that it's lost for me in the past several years.

On the topic of Santa Claus, I can't recall where, but a blog some time ago reminded me of a scene in "Miracle on 34th Street"* where Kris Kringle meets a little girl, adopted as an orphan from Holland by an American family.
KRINGLE - Well, young lady, what's your name?
MOTHER - I'm sorry, she doesn't speak English.  She's Dutch.  She just came over.  She's been living in an orphans' home in Rotterdam since... We've adopted her.  I told her you wouldn't be able to speak to her, but when she saw you in the parade yesterday, she said you WERE Sinterklaas - as she calls you - and you COULD talk to her.  I didn't know what to do ---
KRINGLE [to the little girl] - Hallo!  [begins to speak in Dutch, to the delight of the little girl and the amazement of the bystanders]

Occasionally, we all need to be reminded:

Yes, Virginia, there IS a Santa Claus.

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(*) "Miracle on 34th Street" (1947; dir. George Seaton)

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