Santa's In Produce

The other day I was in the grocery store and said to my youngest son, “There’s Santa.”

Paul looked at the rotund, white-bearded man in Produce, but wasn’t too impressed. Maybe that’s because Paul is sixteen. Okay, he’s not, but the reason Paul wasn’t thrilled at seeing Santa was because Santa lives in our town. Truly. This man, whose legal name is “Santa Claus,” we see year-round. Sometimes he’s shoveling snow off the walk at St. Patrick’s church, other times he’s walking to the library. Anyway, I realized I wanted to talk to Santa about an article I’d been considering writing about him. So after we’d picked up milk and eggs and were rolling toward checkout I asked Paul, “Where’s Santa?” Paul pointed ahead and said, “Santa’s in the frozen section.” How perfect, I thought. Right where he belongs.

I'm-the-Mom Moment--Sweet.

Earlier today I had another I’m-the-mom moment. Here’s how it went. I’d just finished lunch and wanted more, just a little. I looked in the Tupperware tub of spaghetti and thought, nah, not that. Then came a brain to stomach check-in. What do I want? Dark chocolate… coffee…mocha—ice cream! I think we have some. I opened the freezer. We do! Ice cream now? In the middle of the day? Wait! I’M THE MOM! I can do whatever I want—especially when no one’s around to see. And so I sat with my bowl of mocha almond fudge. Mmmm.

Story Published in Chicken Soup

As of October 5th, my story "I Salute You, Mother" is out in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Devotional Stories for Mothers.

Conference on the Comstock

How cool is that? The Nevada SCBWI's (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) Conference, which I'm attending, is in Virginia City this weekend. This legitimate old west town was the model for the fake old west town in the now-closed Ponderosa Ranch, a beautiful lake-front setting on the north shore of Lake Tahoe where some episodes of "Bonanza" were filmed. I loved visiting that place when it was an amusement park but now that it's closed, I can only see the town through my imagination. That's why it's in my current manuscript. As I take an hour to drive down one mountain and up another to Virginia City, I wonder what it must have been like with a horse-drawn carriage. The Starbuck's drive-thru would have been tricky.