Did you know Santa Clause isn’t real? If you didn’t know that, then I’m just kidding…and you should go ahead and find something else to read.

If you did already know Santa is not real then this blog is not going to spoil anything for you. You may have just kind of gradually stopped believing, or you may have had a moment where the light began to dawn. I had a moment. My brother one time said don’t ever write about him in my blog. I think he was kidding.

The first time I really began to suspect something was going on with the whole Santa-comes-through-the-chimney-and-brings-presents thing was pretty unsettling. My Granny Toots’ house was one of the houses in the world where Santa took a pit stop each Christmas Eve. It was right on his route. We would have Christmas Eve dinner, wait the 3 days it would take my Granny, mom and aunts to wash the dishes, and then with perfect timing Santa would knock on the front door to visit. We have the usual pictures of each of us hating his guts when we were babies, but then as we got a little older our reactions were more and more excited. He always brought candy canes. Everyone knows Santa drives a sleigh guided by eight reindeer. One Christmas Eve as we bid Santa a safe journey, my brother Chris and my cousin Jimmy walked me over to the window where I anticipated we would watch as Santa flew away into the night. They knew what they were doing. Instead of climbing into a sleigh powered by reindeer…Santa climbed into a green 1970’s something station wagon powered by a V8. “Where’s his sleigh Haley?” “Where are his reindeer Haley?” I can still picture watching Santa walk toward that car. 

Shannon, Chris, and Jimmy with his hands on my shoulders. The last time I posted an old school picture I was wearing a kilt. In this picture I'm dressed as Betsy Ross and looking nervous. My mom was apparantly into theme wear.