Reasons I believe the man that Katie and I saw across the street today was in fact Kris Kringle a.k.a. Santa Claus:
1. He was very old.
2. He had a long, snowy white beard. I didn't get a picture, but I swear it looked exactly like this:
3. Neither Katie nor I had ever seen him in the neighborhood ever before.
4. He had Santa-like generosity. When we first saw him, he was shoveling the sidewalk to of the house across the street and just to the right. We know all of the occupants of that house, and none of them fit the description in #2 above. Christmas is a time when some people have family members (perhaps elderly bearded parents or grandparents) visiting. He blew that theory when he finished the one sidewalk and moved on to the next house! He shoveled that walk and then moved on to a third house! Katie and I were actually getting excited at this point that we might get our walk shoveled for free. (I had not yet gotten to shoveling out from under yesterday's storm.) Sadly, after three houses he stopped shoveling . . . and started scraping snow from the roof of the first house! The whole travel-from-house-to-house-and-demonstrate-selfless-acts-of-generosity is Santa's stock in trade, is it not?
Things that give me pause about concluding it was Santa Claus:
1. It's four days before Christmas, when Santa would be expected to be at the North Pole whipping all the little elves to prod them into finishing their chores by the 25th.
2. Our Santa doppelganger frequently seemed to imitate the first line from this famous couplet from 'Twas the Night Before Christmas:
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose. 
When our Santa would lay his finger aside of his nose, however, he was preparing to expel nasal mucus from the opposite nostril. He hocked four or five such loogies over the half hour we were lounging in our living room and spying on him. Does that sound very much like Santa Claus?
1. He was very old.
2. He had a long, snowy white beard. I didn't get a picture, but I swear it looked exactly like this:
3. Neither Katie nor I had ever seen him in the neighborhood ever before.
4. He had Santa-like generosity. When we first saw him, he was shoveling the sidewalk to of the house across the street and just to the right. We know all of the occupants of that house, and none of them fit the description in #2 above. Christmas is a time when some people have family members (perhaps elderly bearded parents or grandparents) visiting. He blew that theory when he finished the one sidewalk and moved on to the next house! He shoveled that walk and then moved on to a third house! Katie and I were actually getting excited at this point that we might get our walk shoveled for free. (I had not yet gotten to shoveling out from under yesterday's storm.) Sadly, after three houses he stopped shoveling . . . and started scraping snow from the roof of the first house! The whole travel-from-house-to-house-and-demonstrate-selfless-acts-of-generosity is Santa's stock in trade, is it not?
Things that give me pause about concluding it was Santa Claus:
1. It's four days before Christmas, when Santa would be expected to be at the North Pole whipping all the little elves to prod them into finishing their chores by the 25th.
2. Our Santa doppelganger frequently seemed to imitate the first line from this famous couplet from 'Twas the Night Before Christmas:
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.
When our Santa would lay his finger aside of his nose, however, he was preparing to expel nasal mucus from the opposite nostril. He hocked four or five such loogies over the half hour we were lounging in our living room and spying on him. Does that sound very much like Santa Claus?
When it snows like it has this month, I might prefer that Santa shovel my walk and roof than fill my stocking! (Great photos, by the way.)
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