Like many (but certainly not all) homes in America today, Christmas fever is raging at our house. We’ve got the fireplace going, Christmas tunes crankin’, and we’re all still in our jammies while we finish up gift wrapping and cookie baking. I love it.

My 8 1/2 year old Evie was on the verge of not believing in Christmas magic anymore until I had her read this article from an NBC affiliate in Florida: http://wfla.com/2016/12/21/norads-santa-claus-trackers-training-for-christmas-eve/ It is about the North American Aerospace Defense Command’s Santa Tracker, also known as NORAD. For the past few years my kids have followed along with the NORAD website every Christmas Eve to see Santa’s whereabouts, but this year NORAD really stepped up the offerings:

The article mentioned a special Santa hotline manned by real operators. For 23 hours covering most of Christmas Eve, children can call 877-446-6723 (877-Hi-NORAD) and speak to a live phone operator about Santa’s whereabouts. All four of my big kids called. All four of my big kids were DELIGHTED.

After a year of turmoil and troubles the likes of which the world wasn’t quite ready for, the NORAD telephone hotline is a nice reminder of the good in the world. I presume a team of volunteers from all over the county are on-call to answer curious questions from adorable little believers. I wish I could write them all a thank you letter to let them know just how grateful I am for their kindness and Christmas spirit. My faith in humanity is currently restored thanks to NORAD.

Merry Christmas!

P.S. I just read this NPR article about the history of NORAD. How sweet!

http://www.npr.org/2014/12/19/371647099/norads-santa-tracker-began-with-a-typo-and-a-good-sport