Brian and Libby's Blog

Who put Santa’s head on my door?

No, it’s not a morbid question. It is, rather, the question that has plagued my days and nights since last Saturday. Let me explain. Saturday morning we were helping some friends move to a house conveniently located just a few miles from us. After a long morning, I came home and as I pulled into the garage, it seemed like something was different. I backed up and looked at the front door. My suspicions were confirmed: The fall wreath that had previously occupied my door had been placed on the chair, and REplaced with a hanging Santa head (with a remarkably sparkly beard).

My first thought was that it was Brian – finally succumbing to the pressure of the Christmas music I’d been playing in the house since October. When he got home I greeted him with a hug and kiss and said “thank you!” but his eyes gazed past me and he said “What the heck is that Santa head doing on our house?” When I told him I assumed he had placed it there in support of my seasonal enthusiasm, he said something to the effect of “Why would I support your craziness” (most recently he has been accusing me of being on “Christmas crack”).

I immediately called my friend Debbie. She lives close by and knows I am a little bit of a Christmas enthusiast. But it wasn’t her. Nor was it Chad and Leah, or our friends the Williamsons. We thought maybe it was Jon and Nic. Nope, not them either. We narrowed it down a bit…it had to be someone who knew I loved Christmas, possibly someone who read my blog, and most definitely someone who lived near us. Most of our friends who live near us go to our church, so we figured whoever it was would identify his/herself at church that weekend, but the weekend came and went and no suspects had been brought in. My curiosity heightened.

I made a few more phone calls this week, but no one seemed to know anything about it (and in the meantime I think I confirmed a lot of people’s suspicions that I was crazy). I approached my last hope on Sunday but she said it wasn’t her, so I just figured I would have to go through life never knowing who the kind soul was who reciprocated my Christmas-cheer-spreading.

So after services on Sunday, our friend Steve came up to me. He and his wife Jen do share my affinity for Christmas decorations and they are also in a new home this winter so we’re kind of sharing our excitement for the whole “deck the halls” thing. In typical Steve-O fashion he asked my if I had gotten any decorations up outside yet, and I said no (Brian has made it crystal clear that although he can’t stop me from making the interior of our house a premature winter wonderland, he will see to it that we don’t put up anything outside until it’s socially acceptable). Steve got a little militant, and said “Nothing? Really? NOTHING? Not even on your DOOR?!?!”

A whole string of Christmas light bulbs pretty much went on in my head and I realized that they had been trying to ask me about it all week (I thought they just genuinely wanted to hear about my Christmas décor, oh well). As it turns out, they had purchased it about 2 weeks ago (fortunately they chose the Santa instead of the “Christmas Gnome” lawn art) and since they were also there helping our friends move that Saturday and left before us, they know they could put it up without us knowing. They live about 30 minutes away…very clever. We never suspected them. Very clever, Steve and Jenn, very clever. Watch your back...we can buy lawn art too...

posted by Libby @ 2:37 PM