I believe in Santa

Kyra turned 2 last Saturday and we're having a little party to celebrate with our friends and family in PA tomorrow. Naturally, that means I had to go to Wal-Mart this morning to get those last minute things you need to have THE perfect party.

It was snowing when I arrived at Wal-Mart, so to cut down on the number of things I had to carry while running (literally) into the store, I left the diaper bag in the car. We hadn't been down 2 aisles yet when Kyra started asking for her drink, which was in the diaper bag in the car. She was getting frustrated that I didn't have anything for her, so I began to give her the various items I was buying to entertain her. She would shake, twist, tug, and finally place each item in the shopping cart behind her. I didn't pay much attention to the fact that one particular item had stayed on her lap for quite a while. I was too busy picking out bread and waiting in line at the deli counter for my number to come up.

As I stood in a stupor of thought about which items I still needed to get, something jolted me back to reality. I heard a little voice say "MMMM!" It was the cutest little sound, accompanied by the cutest little smile a child could give. Which could only mean one thing.... Kyra was eating something.... something delicious. And that's when I noticed that the bag of M & M's never made it into the shopping cart. Kyra had strategically chewed a tiny hole into the bag, just big enough to suck little pieces of chocolate heaven through. I laughed as I stood there impressed by her accomplishment.

When my moment of amusement passed I took the bag of candy from her and placed it into the cart, way out of reach of little arms. She didn't react immediately, but as I left the deli counter to collect a few more items, she started to lose it. Not that I blame her. She was hungry and she had had a taste of one of the finest foods in the world. I'd be mad if someone had taken that away from me too. So I tried to calm her down the best I could while still shopping. After a couple minutes I thought I was going to go crazy. She was twisting and turning underneath the seat belt and whining... oh the whining! It was almost too much.

But mere seconds before I lost it, someone interfered. Kyra and I were both startled by a voice behind us saying, "You better be good 'cause I'm watching!" We turned our heads and found ourselves face to face with a charming older gentleman. He had white hair tucked up beneath a sock hat and a white beard that nearly reached his belly button. He was jolly and round and everything you'd picture a certain Christmas icon to be, only he wore brown work boots with khaki pants and a tan winter coat rather than a velvety red suit. Before Kyra or I could make sense of him, he handed her a candy cane out of his shopping cart, smiled, and moved on to look at the apples. She was baffled and finally quiet.

She immediately snapped the hook off the candy cane and began sucking on it as if she'd had 100 candy canes before (when in reality, that was her first). We finished our shopping on a pleasant note thanks to the candy cane. But what struck me about it was the lack of sticky mess that usually accompanies a treat of that nature. No drool coming down the chin, no sticky fingers or clothes, nothing. I mean, just yesterday Kyra had a sucker at the doctor's office and it was on EVERYTHING, so I'm dumbfounded by the lack of stickiness from the candy cane. Which made me think... maybe that really was you-know-who, since he gave us both a gift.

I know around the holidays a lot of stores advertise that this certain jolly ol' soul shops with them, but its is all a bunch of lies. Take it from me, Santa shops at Wal-Mart.