the snow angel returns

Why Boxing Day? When did you get here?

We've gone from "2 months til Christmas" to "14 sleeps til Christmas". From "7 more sleeps" to "2 more sleeps". Then we had the big one.

One more sleep.

Amelia was asleep before 7:30. The excitement simply proved too much for her. Holden followed shortly after. Jack went on his own accord when he decided the sooner he went to sleep the sooner he would wake up. I sent Cicely to bed at 9:30.

Santa came and went by 9:45 and then I was in bed reading a book at 10. It was easy. And relaxed and stress free.

Just the way Christmas should be.

Lovely.

But for our family, the loveliest part of this month has been playing with the Snow Angel. On December 12 we started The 12 Days of Christmas for the Snow Angel and his family.

And it was fun.

We did it anonymously, or so we tried. I do detect, however, a level of delusion in myself in thinking we could get away with that for 12 straight days. We didn't want him to know who was leaving little treats on his front step. So we tried to be real covert-like and hid under a cover of darkness.

We have never met the snow angel and it took some time to figure out where he lived last year when I discovered someone was shoveling my walk every time it snowed. One day I saw him pulling out of his garage on his little green and yellow go-go machine. A little while later our next door neighbour confirmed it was him. We meant to take a thank you to him earlier in the spring but never got around to it. This Christmas, and my December goal, made it perfect for us to thank him properly.

We started every gift with a note that read something like this:

Dear Snow Angel,

On the 1st day of Christmas thy true fans gave to thee...

a partridge in a pear tree.

Or rather.....

a copy of our favourite Christmas CD.

Day 2? Was turtle Doves.......



And everyday after that we took a treat with a little note and tried to tie the treat in as best we could to the song. Sometimes it was a stretch, youknowwhatimean? We tried extra hard not to get caught. The boys were in charge of ringing and running, and in their excitement, some banging on the door.

After a few times I was starting to worry we were bothering them. But then I decided that if someone was doing it to me I would love it and so would my kids so we pressed on.

On day 5 they were having a party. We banged extra hard.

On day 12 I sent the boys up with 12 tiny little ice cream drumsticks and a longer note explaining exactly WHY we appreciated them so much and how grateful we were for their service.

I gave the boys the bag and the usual talking to.

"Now don't bang too loud or too long. We don't want to irritate them. And run fast. Don't walk in front of the windows and DO NOT GET CAUGHT! We've made it this far. Don't get caught!"

A few minutes later they were home and we settled into a game of Uno Extreme. Which is really fun, by the way.

Sometime later......

The man: What's that sound? It sounds like the Snow Angel coming.

Me: But, it's not snowing.

We all looked out the front window and, low and behold, Santa was riding a snow plow and stopped right in front of our house.

The kids freaked. I was a little surprised.

Me: Boys! Did you get caught?

The boys: NO! We ran fast down the alley. They wouldn't have seen us.

The door bell rang. We opened it. Santa, his wife and his two teenage children were standing there with huge smiles on their faces.

Santa (otherwise known as the Snow Angel): Merry Christmas!

Mrs.Snow Angel: Are you guys the ones doing the 12 days of Christmas?

Me: Maaaaaaaaybeeeeeeee?!?!

Snow Angel: We loved it. It was best Christmas ever. We loved it. Thank you.

I almost cried. Part of me was so mad we got caught but a bigger part of me was so relieved that they loved it.

Mrs. Snow Angel: We had spies out tonight and they followed your boys home. We needed to know who it was so we could say thank you.

They handed us a box of chocolates and a DVD and the loveliest of Christmas cards in the history of lovely Christmas cards.

We all introduced each other, shook hands, exchanged some niceties and it was over.

So a thank you for a thank you. And so goes the cycle of generosity and gratitude at Christmas time.

We were pleased but I did need to talk it out a bit.

Me: I'm glad they liked it but it was supposed to be anonymous.

Holden: I'm glad they caught us because now we get to eat all this chocolate!

Me: Hmmmmm, the point has been missed, me thinks.

But it hadn't. They got it. They loved it.

And they are already planning next year's escapades.

And me? I'm just hopeful the song "The 12 Days of Christmas" will exit my head and leave me alone for a bit.

Oy!

*************

Here's what we did:
A partridge in a pear tree. A homemade Christmas CD
2 Turtle Doves. A box of Turtles and a Dove Chocolate bar
3 French Hens. A bag of Chicken Bone Bark. Hens. Chickens. Bones. Get it? Me neither.......
4 Calling birds. They were calling for a dozen of our yummy spiced chocolate chip cookies. They flew away but the cookies stayed.
5 Golden Rings. 5 Honey glazed donuts from Tim Hortons. I was going to make them, but.......
6 Geese-a-laying. Some Cadbury Mini eggs. Yum.
7 Swans-a-swimming. In 2 mugs with Rolo flavored hot chocolate and some chocolate stirring spoons.
8 Maids-a-milking. Egg Nog.
9 Ladies dancing. I cut out 9 paper dolls and Amelia decorated them. We glued them to 9 French Vanilla candy canes and laid them on a Christmas platter.
10 Lords-a-leaping. They leapt right over some Maple Pecan Chocolate Butter tarts. They were goooooood.
11 Pipers Piping. Or Poppers Popping. 2 bags of microwave popcorn with BBQ Chicken Wings flavoured Popcorn salt.
12 Drummers Drumming. 12 mini ice cream drumsticks.

Good times.