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Cheers to Santa!
Santa, the magical elf with the big full bodied laugh, enjoyed a cocktail. Or at least that was what my sister Maura and I believed. While other children left milk and cookies out for the delightful Old Saint Nick, my mother suggested that a martini would be a perfect gift for Santa. After all, he had spent most of the night already passing out gifts; didn’t he deserve a good jolt?
My sister and I were very young, and we didn’t know anything about a “good jolt,” but we did know that disagreeing with Mom in December could potentially knock out several choice gifts from our list. Santa was, after all, watching all the children of the world in a most Orwellian way.
But it bothered us that we were not able to see the mythical disappearance of cookies that our friends always talked about. Our mother reminded us that Santa was in a one-horse open sleigh flying around the world in December. Why on earth would he want cookies when he could enjoy the warming effects of vodka? So a martini was placed on the coffee table near the twinkling lights of the Christmas tree, and off we would go to see all the beautiful decorations in our neighborhood with visions of sugar plums dancing in our little blonde heads.
If you’re wondering why we didn’t go to sleep with visions of sugar plums… well, when I was about five, our family began opening presents on Christmas Eve. That way, potentially – I’m not admitting to anything here – a precocious five-year-old would not open all her presents before everyone else woke up on Christmas day and claim that “Santa left them that way.” I was an adorable child.
So, we would all get in the car, prepared to see the magic of the neighborhood lights, when our mother would “forget her purse” and have to run back to the house to get it. About 15 minutes (which roughly translates to 3 hours for children) later my Mom would come back to the car, pink in the cheeks and grinning.
Later, when we returned home, we always found that Santa had come and gone. In his wake, he left piles of presents and an empty martini glass. It never occurred to us to equate Mom’s pink cheeks to the rather dazzling display of gifts.
And if the to/from card atop each present from Santa had a familiar script, we didn’t notice in our great zeal to get to our presents. Of course, in our family having zeal was fine; attempting to open the presents “like an animal” was another thing entirely. Our family opened each of the presents individually; none of this “group rip fest” for us. With gifts from Santa, our parents, and Grandma Jo, unwrapping presents was a monumental task. Our Grandma was not only a tape-happy present wrapper, but she also enjoyed wrapping everything from a sweater to a bundle of socks in festive paper. We would easily find ten presents under the tree from Grandma Jo. It would take us a good five minutes to open one of her gifts as she would tape the present so securely that we grunted to garner the strength to rip open the paper. This easily added an hour to the “unwrapping” event. But in the end, surrounded by toys, we each had a huge smile on our face.
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As I look upon my childhood, it occurs to me just how magical the holidays really are for children. I can’t remember the countless hours my sister, and I would stay up at night giggling and trying to guess what Santa would bring us, both of us in matching nightgowns and tousled hair. I do know now that we did not miss out on anything by not leaving cookies out for Santa. We still had our “empty cookie plate” thing. It just involved a glass and a really good grade of vodka. Only the best for Santa, after all.
Happy Holidays!
KatieB
Bethany Michaels leads a fairly isolated existence, but she longs to be an outgoing and sexually confident woman. When her celebrity crush comes to town, and literally falls at her feet, her prayers seem to be answered. But can she protect her heart while still experiencing true passion?
Hollywood celebrity Aidan Shannon, drunk and lost in small-town Virginia, finds himself in the home of a beautiful woman, and he finds her more than just a little alluring. Bethany is voluptuous and nurturing, fragile, yet steely. And that is a problem for a man who never wants to be tied to another woman again.
Living in the now is good enough for Aidan and Bethany for the short term. When the universe steps in and shows them what’s important, will Aidan take a chance on love a second time around when his girl needs him?
About the Author: Katie Baldwin has a secret life. During the day she is a mild-mannered administrative assistant at a prestigious University. By night she writes fantastical tales of romance and mystery. When she is not pacing her home working out dialogue in her mind, she is baking scones and working out dialogue in her mind. Aside from writing, she has a ferocious passion for the Green Bay Packers, Nutella and her MinPin/Chihuahua mix dog-baby, Marley. She can be found on twitter waxing eloquently about all of her passions. Go Pack Go! She can be reached via twitter @katiebwrites or her website: http://www.authorkatiebaldwin.com/
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My husband would not allow us to leave a glass of wine. After all he would be driving and no drunk driving for Santa. We left a soda for him.
Love that! And a good idea. Fortunately, my mom was home so if she had a bit to drink she was fine. I mean unless she had to help build a barbie townhouse or something! ~KatieB
Sounds like a good read.