Our six year old grandson has been here visiting, so we’ve enjoyed a grand old time, including fatigue, as some of us are older and more energetic than others.  Tuesday was a perfect beach day.  A friend asks if my grandson  still believes in Santa. It seems so. He knows the Santas at the shopping centers are fake, but he seems to believe that Mr. and Mrs. Santa are up at the North Pole orchestrating the making of toys with the elves.  Well, I believe it is so, so maybe that’s why.  If you haven’t read, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus”, you must read it.  Santa  is as real as love, and truth, and giving, and gifts.

Also, my grandson and I love the book, the Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien.  Tolkien didn’t always have the money for gifts, but he had the gift of intellect and wit, and so letters were written explaining each year why the gifts were destroyed by the North Polar Bear, a most wonderful affectionate, and generous, though clumsy guy, and so, perhaps, for some, no gifts that year but a wonderful letter of explanation.  Check out the Tolkien book of Father Christmas Letters on Amazon, or maybe in your local independent bookstore. I had to go to England to get my copy but that was many years ago.  Now, it’s more readily available.

We are with the King Tides that accompany the December full moon.  Grandson was enchanted with water over the path in Sausalito, and the designs in the water as he sat and observed the ever-changing gifts.