My father was at the church’s children’s Christmas program and Santa party Sunday night, but unfortunately (for the third year in a row) he ended up leaving early, just a few minutes before Santa arrived:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgG6KBOOPcY
Too bad, because he loves Santa Claus, and I know he would have enjoyed seeing the old fellow.
Go to NORADSanta.org to track the Big Guy throughout the day.
As I write this, NORAD reports that Santa is in Australia, and has posted some video of the big guy zooming over New Zealand a bit earlier:
If you have Google Maps on your cell phone, you can search for “norad santa” throughout the day to track his current location.
In case I forget to mention it between now and then, please bookmark the NORAD Santa site and make sure some time between now and Wednesday night that you have Google Earth installed. (There are also some fun activities that you and any Little People in your household can enjoy between now and then.)
NORAD, the North American radar defense system, has been tracking a certain red-suited airborne visitor for many years. One year, a department store near NORAD headquarters set up a telephone line for children to call about Santa. But the number was misprinted in the newspaper (these things happen) and NORAD began getting calls by mistake. Ever since then, they’ve taken on the responsibility of updating children about Santa’s Christmas Eve progress — first by phone, now on the web and even on mobile phones.
The integration with Google Earth in the last few years makes it even more fun to see where Santa is at any given moment.
We had our children’s Christmas program at church tonight — the adult cantata will be next Sunday. Following the program was a Santa party. Strangely enough, although both my parents attended the program, only my mother stayed for the Santa party. My father is going to be so disappointed when he finds out he missed Santa Claus.
Anyway, while we were standing around watching the children on Santa’s lap, my mother had a conversation with V., a woman at our church who has been battling breast cancer. (Mom is also a breast cancer survivor.)
Because V. is about to start chemo, the doctor had recommended that her young daughters get flu shots. One of them, apparently, was not happy about this prospect. V. explained to her that if she got sick, it could make mommy very, very sick. Wouldn’t it be better, she asked, for her to have a prick in the arm — which only lasts a few seconds — than for mommy to have to go into the hospital?
The girl thought about this a moment.
“How many days would you have to go into the hospital?” she asked.
I just saw a promo — our local MyNetwork TV station, WUXP (MyTV30), is going to air the 1973 TV movie version of “Miracle on 34th Street” Saturday night.
I haven’t seen this in ages and ages. It’s nowhere near as good as the classic 1947 original, but it’s not bad (and it is much more faithful to the original than the 1994 Elizabeth Perkins / Dylan McDermott version). It’s like a classic TV time capsule: Sebastian “Family Affair” Cabot as Kris Kringle, David “Good Morning America” Hartman as his defense lawyer, Jane “Eleanor and Franklin” Alexander, Roddy “Planet of the Apes” McDowall as the haughty Macy’s psychologist, Tom “Happy Days” Bosley, Jim “Gilligan’s Island” Backus, David “Charlie’s Angels” Doyle, Conrad “Mork and Mindy” Janis and James “Barney Miller” Gregory.
I read at IMDb just now that Sebastian Cabot, who played the unflappable butler Mr. French on “Family Affair,” had to shave off his real-life beard and wear a false one for the movie, because the makeup artists couldn’t get his real beard full or white enough!
I know David Hartman had a dramatic TV series, “Lucas Tanner,” but I still think of him as the original host of “Good Morning America,” and the occasional ABC documentary after he left his morning routine. It’s weird to imagine him as an actor.
I’ve been following Santa’s progress on the NORAD Santa web site and particularly enjoyed this video:
Many years ago, a department store in Colorado set up a telephone number for children to call and talk to Santa.
But when the local newspaper published the telephone number, there was a typo. (That happens sometimes.) And so, when children started calling, they reached, not Santa, but … NORAD, the American and Canadian missile defense system.
That gave the guys at NORAD a great idea. After all, they were already set up to track incoming airborne vehicles from the north …. so they set up their own telephone line, allowing them to reassure kids on Christmas Eve that Santa was, indeed, on his way. Now, instead of a telephone line, they have a web site.
On Wednesday, I suggested to a former co-worker that she and her daughter visit the NORAD Santa web site, http://www.noradsanta.org. I meant to come back and post about it here that day, but I forgot about it until just now, when it was the answer to a question on “Duel.”
The tracking feature, of course, doesn’t go live until Christmas Eve, but there’s plenty more to explore at the site over the weekend — games and music and fun features. Plus, there’s a link to download Google Earth, which you will need for the tracking features on Monday if you don’t already have it.
Kids of all ages, up to and including 107, should visit this site.
Me and Santa
Originally uploaded by jicarney.
… there is a John I. Carney. Here’s photographic proof.
Monday is the big conclusion of the year-long observance of Bedford County’s 200th birthday. I’m a member of the Bicentennial Organizing Committee.
Today, we had our next-to-last event: a two-hour “Christmas on the Square” climaxing with the first-ever lighting of a newly-planted courthouse Christmas tree.
The newspaper sponsored photos with Santa in the courthouse, and when I was looking around inside Santa, who knows me, invited me to sit on his lap.
Whenever Jimmy Jones gives me the photo, some time next week, I will post it here.
Meanwhile, living alone and not entertaining, it’s been a few years since I replaced my last little artificial tree. I found a dirt-cheap tree with fiber-optic lights among the branches today at Dollar General Market, and I put it up tonight. It’s not much, but it makes things feel a little more like Christmas.