Do you believe in Santa?

I do!

He resides at the Neshaminy Mall in Langhorne, PA just prior to the big night. He has proven this to me twice and I feel compelled to share the events that took place with you.

The first incident took place about 8 years ago when my now 16 year old son was 8 and he was sitting on the fence as far as his belief in Santa was concerned. As a tradition in our house, every Christmas Eve since he was 4, we read the Polar Express (before Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg made it a movie) before bed. If you are unfamiliar with the story it involves a child asking for a bell from Santa's sleigh as a gift and it's ring can only be heard by believers. My son was very familiar with the story and he figured he came up with a fool proof plan to see if Santa was "real" or not. Unbeknownst to me he asked this Mall Santa for a bell off his sleigh. As we stood in line waiting for the pictures to be developed, Santa motioned to me and asked me to come over to him. He reached into a bag next to him and handed me a bell on a leather string and asked me to wrap this up for my son! Every hair on my body stood on end, I knew exactly why my son had asked for it and Santa came through!

The second incident occurred when my now 9 year old daughter was 3 1/2 years old. In November of that year I went on a class trip with my son and I left her home with her dad. Big mistake. While her father was downstairs captivated by Franklin on Nick Jr. she was up in the bathroom giving herself a makeover which included a haircut. When he went looking to see what she was doing he found her sitting on the toilet, with her long blonde curles circling the floor below her! He panicked! He picked her up and the hair up and ran to the Hair Cuttery. He said to the hairdresser her mother is going to kill me, do something. All she could do was grin and say I'm sorry! My daughter now sported a mullet, not your average mullet either, I am talking one of those backwoods, hearin' banjo music in the background mullets! Of course this was days before her Nursery School pictures. When I got home well lets just say I was a bit despondent! (I was also 8 months pregnant if that helps explain things) In hindsight it is a very funny story but to be honest I was really upset. My two older children were baldies as babies and well into toddlerhood, Emily had this long beautiful blonde curly hair, she was my first 3 year old that had any hair to speak of. I cherished it a little. She had her picture taken as is no hat no nothing, history is history and there is nothing you can do about it, right? A few weeks later we went to see Santa, not much growth had taken place! It did still bother me everytime I looked at her but I would never let on as she was as proud as punch with her new haircut. When we got up to Santa she sat with him and told her all of her wishes as they finished and walked away Santa grabbed my hand and he said to me "I really like her haircut. I really do" Up went my hair again! The thing that gets me is he said it to me not her, as if he knew how much it bothered me. Santa helped me immeasurably that day. He made me a believer, and I still am............................................................Do you believe in Santa?

Am I Different?

This morning I was driving to work, I was traveling on a road that turns into a 4 lane highway, very busy during rush hour. (For all of you in SE Pennsylvania I was on Route 309) I was driving behind a young girl in a small blue car. I noticed (because she pulled out in front of me) that she had her rear view mirror turned down so she could see herself in the mirror instead of seeing behind her. She was applying her make-up and scrunching her hair. Never once did she correct the mirror nor did I see her take her eyes off of herself and I was behind her for about 4 miles!

I began thinking to myself, which one of us is crazy, me or her? I am a woman in every respect of the word but I really don't believe that I always think like a woman. My first reaction to seeing her drive like this was that I wanted to get out of the car and punch her. Then I thought to myself am I less of a woman then she is because I don't believe in reckless abandon for the sake of beauty? Maybe I just have more testosterone coursing through my veins, my appearance would contradict that as I am not excessively hairy nor do I have a very deep voice but I figure if I don't have the time to put on "my face" before I leave the house then it just ain't gonna get done!

I think what upsets me most about this young girl is if she did hit someone or people witnessed her applying makeup while driving then these people would go into work and discuss this bitches stupidity around the water cooler, they'd say things like "typical woman driver". I don't think she is the typical woman driver and by being so self centered she is setting women back many generations. What a pity!