Santa deserves CHOCOLATE

We went and visited my sister in law and a few members of her family. They are home visiting from Wyoming so it is always a treat to be able to spend time with them. This year is more stressful than usual for various reasons. My niece’s husband had a kidney transplant last week. Wonderful news that he had a brother willing to donate but Scott hasn’t fared very well since the surgery. We are all sending up extra prayers on his behalf that he is able to stabilize and begin the real recovery process.
Before we delivered their gifts and exchanged many hugs my husband took me to the mall. I still don’t know WHAT I was thinking. Well I do but it is hard to justify that much abuse for a few last minute gifts. I did have a strange encounter while I was standing in one of the shops. I was minding my own business, looking at boxed sets of dvds when someone poked me. I thought maybe I was blocking their view so I inched forward and went back to scanning the shelves. Then I got another poke, only this time it was more of a nudge. I looked back over my shoulder and met the intent gaze of a complete stranger. I just gave him a puzzled look and moved once again. Before I could even begin to focus on the movies I got an even more insistent JAB. I turned around more than ready to give the guy the very last "piece of my mind" but before I could do just that the man spoke. It didn’t register the first time, so I said, "Pardon?"
He just gave me a very long suffering glance and then he leaned in a bit closer and whispered, "Lady, I don’t know if you’re interested or not but that is Nick Saban standing beside you."
I know my mouth fell open because I had to close it. The man was finally satisfied that he had gotten through to me at last. I looked over and it really was Coach Nick Saban, in the flesh. For the uninformed he is the Coach of the Year (according to the AP Poll) and the head football coach for my beloved Crimson Tide. Who knew the man shopped? What does one say to a man such as this? "Thank You" seems a bit bland. Then after I thought about it I decided not to say anything. The man was trying to do some Christmas shopping and he didn’t need to be bothered. It did make me smile though. Not many people can say they actually did their holiday shopping with Coach Saban. I will say that he is a very nice looking man, that his photographs do him justice. I did expect him to be "taller". When I made that remark to my husband he just smirked. Then I finished my thought, "Of course he couldn’t possibly be as tall as he seems."  "Ten feet tall and bullet proof" is kind of hard to live up to but Coach does an admirable job.
We came home and I went straight to work cooking for tomorrow. Ben helped by making the pies. Michael and Sam assisted by staying out of the kitchen!  I was waiting for the chicken to cook so I could make the "dressing" when my husband casually said that he had been thinking. That is always dangerous. I agreed with him on this though. Tomorrow is going to be a chaotic stew of emotions. That is a given. He said that he thought we should open all the gifts tonight so that tomorrow we could focus on getting the food transferred to mama’s house and just being together. For some strange reason the kids didn’t object. They are happily playing with all the goodies that go with Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Sam loves the drum "throne". Michael got enough "band" shirts to last him into the next century. Lauren got the tv series "Charmed" on dvd. She was over the moon. She also got a beautiful butterfly bracelet from her daddy. Ricky got a HUGE tool chest for the shed. I got some lovely jewelry. I also got a season of NCIS. I will be happily overdosing on "Gibbs" for the foreseeable future. We all have much to be thankful for.
Today while we were at the mall my husband managed to steer me into the jewelry store. I was puzzled at first. Then I understood. He explained to the clerk that my daddy had recently died and that in years passed he always tried to get my mama something pretty for Christmas. Ricky knew that this year would be the worst for her, doubly so as their wedding anniversary is the day after Christmas. He said, "PeePaw wanted to give her pretty things. I guess it’s my place now." So my husband spent several moments looking through display cases before he spotted a beautiful diamond and gold cross necklace, very delicate and lovely just like mama. Maybe it will make things a little easier for her.
I just thought that I would stop in and share the holiday joy. Christmas shopping with Coach Saban. A kidney transplant that will hopefully "take" which in reality means ‘life’.  "Mufflers" for the drums on Rock Band. The person that thought of that was a GENIUS. A husband that loves my mama enough to spoil her. Santa has been good.  He deserves chocolate. Thank you Santa, for everything.  Merry Christmas to you all.