do I hear Santa's sleigh bells?

Yes, yes you do. Those are indeed sleigh bells.

In years past at druid labs midwest, hobbitt and I would wrap up, harness up the pups and take a walk around the block at midnight on Christmas Eve. The final ingredient would be the sleigh bells that sat waiting all year. Duffy and Dale hated the freaking bells, so eventually we'd just hold them in our free hands and shake them as we trod the course. Here and there a family would turn on their outside lights to see who was masquerading as Santa. We were usually gone by then. The streets were narrow and there were no sidewalks, so we had to hustle. It was fun and it always made me cry. Magic does that to me.

Well, we stepped outside tonight (at 11 - so sue us) to shake the bells. There's no point in walking down this street. Most of the homes are way back off the road, and there aren't any children in the homes past us, as far as we know. We shook the bells out front for a few minutes, then softly, to fake the sleigh retreating. Then we went out back to do the same thing. I cried. The night was beautiful and black, with a huge almost-full moon, and the usual musical stars. Inti doesn't care much for the bells and the cat, Mollie, is positively terrified by the din, and Santa doesn't come here.

I could pretend that magic doesn't exist just because sometimes it doesn't seem to exist for us, but I won't go there. I believe in magic. I can't help it. Santa's up there and NORAD says so. Who am I to argue with them?