Fire Department, Santa and Candy Canes, Oh my!

On December 21st I was driving home from work and could hear in the far off distance what sounded like an Ambulance. I thought, oh, that's sad; some one is having a medical emergency in such a festive time of year. I walked in the door to our house and was doing the standard meet and greet, including the barage of happy Padon chatter, and I could hear a police car, but closer this time. I think I made a comment to Walter along the lines of, "What do you think is going on? Do you think they're going after the drug dealer (yeah, we have a drug dealer couple blocks away)?" And then I heard the whoop, whoop of the emergency vehicle again and it clicked! "I yelled "Oh my God! Padon come here, come here!" And as it clicked for me, Walter also clicked and he started to scramble. I grabbed a startled Padon in my arms (he was in his PJs) and I started to run to the front door. As I flew through the door Walter yelled watch out for the front steps, which were covered in ice and I slowed down just enough to safely stumble down them and out through our front gate to great Santa Claus walking along side an ambulance COVERED in Christmas lights followed closely by a fire truck. Every year Santa comes from the North County Fire Department and patrols Kayak Estates throwing candy and giving holiday well wishes. We had missed it the year before and Padon was in complete awe, waving to Santa and yelling, "Merry Christmas!" I felt someone next to me and turned to see that Walter had grabbed Sophia too, and I was pleasantly surprised at the fact that he had brought her out, because it was so cold, and because why had I not thought of it?

Santa wished us all Merry Christmas and gave Padon and Sophia each a candy cane and continued down the street with the sirens chirping as they went. We thanked the emergency crew, wished them a happy holiday, and paused a bit to laugh with our neighbors, that live across the street, who had also been listening to the sirens and wondering what was going on, to suddenly remember and run outside. Only their kids had been in the bathtub and they had, had the memorable scramble out of the tub and into PJs to run outside as fast as they could.

Inside we let the kids have their candy canes and while Padon relished unwrapping his own, Sophia was a riot as she took her very first taste of peppermint, thought about it for a second, and dived back in. Her candy cane crook had broken off and was a straight piece of candy. This she would pass back and forth from hand to hand as she put it in her mouth and pulled it back out. It was quickly a sticky mess and so we put her in her high chair to go hog wild on her candy treasure. I was so glad we could capture this moment and that Padon was able to see Santa. Some where he had picked up that Santa had a toy work shop and had been in awe of the Santa picture booth at the Bellevue Square Mall that was elaborately assembled to look like his actual house. We don't emphasis Santa at all as bringing presents or that he likes good kids over the bad, but still Padon has learned about him. It will be interesting to see how Santa becomes established in a house that doesn't really celebrate Christianity or imaginary characters that bring treats through out the year.