Went outside today and took a doggie pondering walk. The furious wind blew the Santa hat off Mr. Claus. I looked all over the neighborhood for that hat. Mrs. Claus still has her hat. The wooden figures belonged to my Aunt Margaret Shaffer. Cousin Blake gave them to me after she died. I put them on either side of my front door at Christmas and put pretty Santa caps on their heads.

Mrs. Santa must be chubbier than him. She blew over on the porch but Santa blew all the way to the sidewalk. Don’t think Mrs. S fed him enough biscuits this year. You know she probably packs the sleigh and harnesses the reindeer to the sleigh after she’s fed them and walked them from the barn to the sleigh.

If Santa is like most daddies, he’s smoking his pipe by the fireplace as she bustles around. I remember one Christmas Eve, Chief turning my way in the bed to say, “Mama, what’s Santa bringing the children this year?” I know there are mothers reading this who can relate!

Lots of y’all remember my Aunt Margaret in her role as Mrs. Santa Clause! She had the beautiful red velvet dress and starched white apron and wore my grandmother’s bun pinned to her back of her hair. She loved Christmas time as much as a child. She loved Disney World, too!

She once got the opportunity to read children’s Christmas books at Disney World. She was barreling wide-open down the interstate to Orlando and was stopped for speeding. She told the state trooper she was Mrs. Claus and was running late for an appointment at Disney World. She pointed to her Mrs. Claus dress hanging in the back seat. He sent her on her way without a ticket. He must have been a believer, too!

I loved Aunt Margaret and enjoyed her craziness. She was a character from a Tennessee Williams play. Her hair was always messy and there was a cigarette burning in an ash tray in every room in the house. She hid her potato chips in the oven and kept a box of petit fours under her bed. Loved an off color joke and her vodka and tonic and her Winston cigarettes.

But when the holidays rolled around, she religiously went to the beauty parlor and got her hair done and Big Ma’s bun securely pinned on the back of her hair. Her velvet dress was dry cleaned and her white apron crisply starched. She rode in countless Christmas parades in Alexander City and when our children were old enough they rode on the float with her.

My daddy used to laugh and say if he could shake mama and Aunt Margaret up together in a sack he’d have the perfect woman. Mama was ten years older than Aunt Margaret and every time they ate lunch at Carlisle’s the waitress would ask them which one was the oldest. That irked Aunt Margaret so much. They’d have the best time together and laughed so much when they got together. I never heard my mother really laugh except when she was with her sister.

When I moved to Alexander City, she and Uncle Jim treated me like one of their own. Spent many happy afternoons with them. When I left Uncle Jim always said, “ You know you’re my favorite niece!” I’d laugh and retort, “ I’m your only niece!”