a treasured memory

One of my dearest memories, from a Christmas not too long before my mom died:

I was in Ohio, visiting Mom and Dad for the holidays. Christmas Eve, cocoa, popcorn, music, contentment. I mentioned the "NORAD tracks Santa" thing...they hadn't heard of it, so we rushed to the computer and hit up www.noradsanta.org to see where Santa was.

Mom saw the toll-free number and gave it a call, expecting an automated "Santa is now crossing the Sahara desert" or something. Nope. Live person.

"Merry Christmas!! This is <PersonName>, a <Rank> here at NORAD, helping Santa out this Christmas Eve."

Mom panicked and hung up. Dad and I were crying, we were laughing so hard.

"What?? I wasn't expecting an actual person!!"

Once we got ourselves under control, we called back, this time on speakerphone. The woman on the other end was awesome. "What's your name, little girl?" <heavy giggles from the three of us> "Where do you live?" "Ah, Trinway, Ohio...let me see...looks like Santa should be visiting your house around 2am, so be sure to be tucked up in bed and fast asleep before then, okay?"

She never broke character. "Santa is so busy that we volunteered to help him out and let people know where he was, that way he could concentrate on getting the presents to all the good girls and boys. It's an amazing honor."

After thanking her for the fun, we hung up and sat there giggling, talking, watching the website, and just enjoying being together.

It was one of my favorite and best Christmases.