Christmas Firetrucks!?

Note: This first bit of description is lifted directly from an e-mail I sent to my friend Shannon. “The first week of December brings the annual food drive firetruck Santa drive by. I don’t know what they really call it, maybe it’s “Operation Candy Cane”. . that seems to ring a bell. Anyway, the local fire department has an antique firetruck complete with a crazy antique siren. Once a year they take school kids on rides through the town on it with the siren blaring. The only other time I’ve seen it out is this time of year. Over 5 or so nights, they go up and down EVERY STREET of our town with the siren sirening, Christmas lights all over the truck, Christmas music, a lit Christmas tree balanced on top, Santa riding and waving and other such stuff. There are tons of volunteers that walk along side it and a truck from the local food bank. If you wait on your sidewalk with food for the food bank, you get a candy cane. I LOVE this tradition. The first year we saw it, we didn’t know what the hell was happening and lived on such a busy street that all we saw was a blur of lights and the faint echo of “frosty the snowman” as they sped down the hill. Now it’s become something to look forward to. I put it on the calendar as soon as the map of the path they’d be taking was out with our last electric bill. Abby and I could hear the siren when it was still two blocks away. She went and saw santa the other day and almost pulled Tom’s pants off, she was so nervous! So, that night she stood nervously holding her bag of food (by the way, explaining to a little kid that there are people without food is a little heartbreaking. . .she just couldn’t fathom not having food and when we gave it away, she said, “I don’t want to give ALL of our food away Mama.” Goodness, I had to take a little breath for centering and explain that we were just giving away our extras. . . Oh my.) Oh dear, I’ve lost myself in commas and parentheses. So, she was nervous about Santa coming on a firetruck. And, when I think about it, I would be a little nervous too. Imagine a very loud siren on a firetruck, which is something that means danger, with a scary man in a red suit on board and they’re asking you to give all of your food to them. . . yeah, I’d wonder myself! As soon as the volunteer held out the candy cane. . . all was forgotten and she ran down the sidewalk chasing the truck. She kept saying, “Mama, I forgot to say thank you for the candy!” over and over again. I finally had to tell her that we’d write a note. Times like this, I get a little sad that she’s getting older. When my child runs down the street after a Christmas firetruck because she forgot to say thank you are just such times. Sooner than I can imagine, she’ll be far too cool to run after the Christmas firetruck. Sigh.”
A few weeks later, Abby got to go to a birthday at the fire station and actually get on the santa firetruck.