Living in a small town has its drawbacks, that is for sure. When we moved here in the mid 90’s I watched a Martha Stewart cooking show and wanted to make some of this newfangled risotto rice she raved about. Perusing our three small grocery stores, there was none to be had. I knew, having come from much a much larger town with more grocery option, that if I tried hard enough there, I would certainly have been able to find specialty rice. Or toys. Or clothes. Or appliances. The same thing – small town = limited shopping options.

But let me tell you, small towns also have their blessings. And I don’t care how much you argue, the blessings FAR outweigh the drawbacks. For example, before the kids came this Christmas I was tasked with finding a Santa for the grandkids to visit. Drawback? There is one Santa in town and he was done in the mall on the 17th, a good five days before the kids arrived. Blessing? When I went to social media to find out about Santa’s schedule (I was seriously out of the loop about those kind of things…) The “Santa” AKA, Mike, father to a daughter who danced with Gracie for years, excellent photographer and general good guy, gave me his phone number and said he would be willing to help out.

Helping out meant a house call! We arranged it a few days out- he was making a some stops that day for others in our situation. It felt weird being in phone contact with Santa all morning. As he made his way to our house he would update me on his progress. It was a blizzardy sort of day, which makes for treacherous roads here. Snowy. Icy. Slick. Finally though, in spite of the snow that slowed him down, I got the text that he was on his way. 10 minutes out.

The doorbell rang and both boys leapt to open it, not knowing of course that Santa was on the other side. Santa stood there in the dusky snowstorm and greeted the boys, “You must be Weston! Viggo,” and he put out his hand. Weston was in complete shock, he took a step back, but, to our complete surprise, Viggo reached out and shook hands with Santa.

We posed for pictures, fed him cookies – Peanut butter was his favorite- and the boys told him what they wanted for Christmas.

You could tell this was not his first rodeo. He picked up clues instantly, telling Viggo he would bring toys to his “blue house too.”

When the fun was over, Viggo held his hand and walked him to the door which Weston was holding open. After they waved goodbye and with the door closed, Scott walked Santa to his car and slipped him a bottle of scotch.

Commence the happy dance! How cute were they in their little buffalo plaid jammies jumping up and down laughing and singing, “It was SANTA!! It was SANTA!!” We all joined in and there was this moment, this magical moment, when Weston got a tear in his eye – which of course is contagious, so we all got a little tear in our eye. And that? That is a small town blessing.