I had to be downtown about 17,380 times this past weekend because a certain child had a dance thing and apparently they still don't let 15 year-olds drive? They did in North Dakota, at least back in the 90's. I know that because I had my license at 14. Alas, I could not be so lucky with Alexis. I am counting the days, though. Soon I will take a temporary retirement from my part-time position as a chauffer.
SOON.
One of those 17,380 times that I was downtown allowed for enough time to walk through Market Square to look at the little shops that get set up there for Christmas. It's a thing that both girls love to do, mostly because there's a strudel shop, but that's not the point. The point is we were all there anyway, so we jumped in line to talk to Santa. Or, at least Mila did.
Two things of note happened inside that little building. The first involved the card that Mila was handed as we were walking in to talk to Santa via Zoom. Yes, Zoom. There are no in-person visits, at least not there, which is completely fine because I prefer this thing where we play things a little extra safe. It's better. Anyway, the little card was handed to her with a simple instruction, "Use the red side if you want a white Santa and the green side if you want a Black Santa."
I watched as Mila processed that choice. I think it's a good choice, for what it's worth, but I saw the exact moment that Mila considered if that meant there were TWO Santas. And if there are two, what does that actually mean? She's got questions is what I'm saying. I'm sure I'll be addressing them sometime soon.
The second thing happened while Mila was talking to Santa via her fun little Zoom meeting. For the record, she picked Black Santa. I think she wanted to see for herself that there was an alternate Santa whose existence she had not previously considered. She saw the evidence of ... something ... and he was wonderful and sweet and did a great job striking up a conversation with the Tiny Human.
Mila sat on a bench staring at a giant television and completely enthralled by the magical man on the screen. He talked about his preparations for the big holiday and then asked Mila a series of questions about things like school and what she likes to do and all of that. He was quite the conversationalist. Mila played right along. She was a little quiet because it's hard to be outgoing when the fate of your Christmas is smiling at you. But then she went dead silent.
Speechless even.
At the end of the week when Mila broke the television cabinet, got caught sneaking candy out of the pantry, lied about at least half a dozen things, and ... it's a long list. There were a LOT of rules broken last week. All of them, even. And at that end of the week, Mila found herself facing Santa as he asked the simplest of questions, "Have you been listening to your mom?"
I don't think it's a coincidence that when we returned home, Mila immediately cleaned up her disaster zone in the family room and then asked, "What else can I do to help?"
Thanks, Santa.