Sitting at the kitchen table, Melody was very carefully writing her letter to Santa Claus. On the opposite side of the table, Lori was helping Jesse with his letter. At only three years old, the little boy couldn’t write yet so Lori had helped him to cut out the pictures of the toys he wanted to ask Santa for from the flyer that had been in the Sunday newspaper. For once the little boy was content to sit still and use the glue stick to add his Christmas wishes to the sheet of paper. Lori had already written “Dear Santa” at the top of the page and “love from Jesse” at the bottom, warning her son that the pictures had to fit in between.
“Hey,” called Jake from the doorway. “What’s going on in here?”
“We’re writing our Santa letters,” replied Melody, holding hers up for her daddy to see.
“Very neat, Miss M,” praised Jake with a smile. Like her mother, the little girl was a perfectionist. “Do you want to go into town to mail them after lunch?”
“Yes!” shrieked both kids loudly.
“Ok,” said Jake. “We’ll walk into town later. There’s a special Santa mail box near the bandstand.”
“Mommy, will you come too?” pleaded Jesse as he glued the last picture to his letter.
“No,” said Lori, putting the lid back on the glue stick. “I need to do some work this afternoon.”
“Daddy, can we go get hot chocolate with marshmallows after we mail our letters?” pleaded Melody, gazing up at him with his big blue eyes.
“Maybe.”
It had snowed over the area the night before, blanketing the beach and surrounding area in three inches of soft powdery snow. As he walked along the beach, Jake watched the kids run on up ahead, smiling as they occasionally pelted each other with snowballs. Every few yards they would flop down into the snow and make sandy snow angels. He smiled, treasuring the precious moments with his family. Both kids were over excited; both of them counting down the sleeps until Santa came.
“This way, you two!” he called as they reached the path that led up to boardwalk near Funland.
Much to his surprise, they both came running towards him, slipping their tiny hands into his without being asked.
“What are you wanting Santa to bring you?” asked Melody as they reached the boardwalk.
“Oh, I don’t know,” replied Jake, stalling for time. “Some new running shoes. Maybe a new guitar.”
“You’ve got lots of guitars, Daddy!” stated Jesse bluntly.
“And you’ve got lots of trains but you still asked Santa for another one, didn’t you?” teased Jake.
“I think Mommy wants a new computer,” said Melody, changing the subject. “She was calling hers some bad words.”
With a laugh, Jake admitted that Lori had indeed called her laptop some choice names after it crashed and deleted two days’ worth of work.
As the family group walked along the snow-covered boardwalk, the kids dragging Jake over to explore each of the small Christmas houses that had sprung up. The red Santa mailbox stood on the boardwalk opposite the bandstand, suitably lit and signposted.
Carefully, Jake removed the letters from his jacket pocket and handed them to the kids. Pulling his cell out too, he took some quick photos of them mailing them off to Santa then suggested that they pose beside the town’s large Christmas tree for more photos.
“Ok, guys,” he began as he slipped the phone back into his pocket. “Who wants hot chocolate?”
“Me! Me! Me!”
(Credits to the owner of the photo Elliot MacGuire Photography- photo is tagged)
If you want to catch up with all things Silver Lake then the links are below:
Amazon.com links –
Stronger Within – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VXDSC1M
Impossible Depths – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01C0GS30K
Bonded Souls – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XSQHG71
Shattered Hearts – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZY8ZSDM
Amazon.co.uk links –
Stronger Within – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00VXDSC1M
Impossible Depths – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01C0GS30K
Bonded Souls – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XSQHG71
Shattered Hearts – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07ZY8ZSDM
Coral McCallum 