Ho Ho Heh.
Last year the beginning of The Holiday Season started some of the most emotionally challenging months of my life. I don't need to relive them (that's what I paid my therapist for), but there was a point in the middle of it all when I thought all of my Christmas optimism was going to be gone forever and ever.
This morning, as I was walking out of a bakery with a carton of muffins, I heard some sleigh bells jingle. My breath caught in my chest, and I craned my neck to the sky. It's not even December, and I'm nearly thirty years old, but there was a second, just a second when I thought I was going to see Santa Claus.