An eye in the sky . . .

Yesterday, we decided to brave the crowds and hit the Navy Exchange for our last little bit of Christmas shopping. After torturing ourselves for a good hour, we hit McDonald's in the food court so that the kids could have some lunch. The food court is on the second floor of the shopping area, and down below on the first floor is where Santa is posted taking pictures with all the kids. We happened to grab a table right next to a railing with a perfect view of Santa sitting below, so while the kids munched on fries, they kept stealing glances at Santa to see what was going on.

Charley and Zander always split a Happy Meal at McD's, which is generally okay except for the ONE container of chocolate milk. They seemingly always end up fighting over whose turn it is and who got a bigger drink, and I figured this occasion would be no different. For the first few sips, the sharing went okay, but when it got down to the last half inch of milk, I got a little worried. Just to give everybody fair warning, I told Zander that he could take one more big sip and then Charley got to finish the milk. He took his big sip, and then with obvious hesitation, he slowly passed Charley the milk with a crabby look on his face and said, "I want the last drink."

Charley greedily grabbed the milk, and then I saw something new, something I've never seen before . . . she paused for a moment, gazed down at Santa, and then slid the milk back over to Zander and told him he could finish it. I didn't immediately make the connection until a minute or so later when Charley piped up, "Mom, I think I'm going to get lots of presents this year because I've been such a good girl."

Ah, now I see. Santa really WAS watching. Why can't Santa have that effect the other eleven months of the year?