{Virtual Coffee}

Well hello Tuesday. With all that has been going on, I had to pour me a tall one this morning. If we were meeting for coffee today I would tell you that we got our tree on the weekend, before all this snow came.

While we were waiting for the man to come out and haggle with us, we noticed the place had a direct line to Santa.

If we were hanging out for a brew and a biscuit, I would tell you about a classic "me" story that happened last week. I was having lunch with my boss, partly to celebrate my 50th and his 50th and partly to replace the company Christmas dinner I won't be able to make. In the bathroom just before lunch I realize I've got these big white deodorant stains on my BLACK sweater under BOTH armpits.

So I spent the rest of the day trying to keep my arms close to my body.

After having a good laugh at my expense we would get on to some teary subjects like how I took Riley shopping for his first tie last week. It was, in fact, his idea, which tells me how he is growing up and it was kind of fun going in and out of stores, fingering the different materials, imagining what it would look like with his (one) fancy shirt. He finally settled on the first one we saw at H&M, a funky plaid.

I would tell you about another teary thing that happened after Riley lost another tooth last week. He likes to make fancy envelopes for them and wrap them up. For this one he sacrificed one of his funky bands.

As we were placing it under his pillow that night he whispered that he thought I was the toothfairy. Then he changed the subject real quick so I didn't have to answer.

But it left me choked up because once the toothfairy goes, so does Santa and the Easter Bunny. As luck would have it, the next day over lunch the subject came up again and I segued into how important it is to believe in magic all your life because when you don't believe, magic stops happening. With Christmas coming I paralleled our conversation with the Polar Express and he said he would always believe in magic. Christmas was saved another year! Until he came home from school saying that a kid in his class told him that Santa was dead. Luckily I had some experience with this as last year his grade one teacher told him there was no such thing as Santa Claus. Just don't ask me about that book the grade ones and twos have to read, Mon Chien Balou (I've had to re-read it at least seven times these last few weeks with the kids in Riley's class). Am I the only one who sees it as morbid - a story about a little boy's special birthday dog who gets hit by a car and dies? Good grief, it all reminds me of this math problem Riley brought home last year. Remind me again why I chose this school?

And since you probably had some trouble getting here with all the snow that has fallen these last few days, you would enjoy seeing the flocks of tiny birds taking advantage at my feeder.

There is an absolute feeding frenzy going on with the finches and the chickadees who are braving the storm to dig under the snow drifts to get to the black sunflower seeds. This is indeed a haven for wildlife with this guy

who has taken up residence in the bathroom. Usually he comes out and struts his stuff when I'm taking my morning shower. I've decided to let him stay the winter.

If I haven't talked your ear off yet, you can go over to Amy's to see who else showed up for coffee today.