Santa Drives a Peterbilt!

The weather is getting chilly, there's a snowstorm brewing just west of Denver. The Redwood trees on Victoria Island are blanketed in white frosty snow. Downtown city streets are filled with shoppers and twinkling Christmas lights.

Music of the season infiltrates the air coming from just behind wreath and holly-clad doors. The shelves are filled with candles, toy trains, fuzzy slippers and more. Wide-eyed children gaze at the treats galore; candy canes, cookies, fudge, and cups of hot chocolate with marshmallo cream.

The jingle of bells can be heard on sidewalk corners, as carolers sing joyful Christmas songs. Everyone, it seems, becomes a Santa, I know because santa hats can be seen here and there, adorning the heads of scurrying shoppers. Santa has no age restrictions! Anyone from newborn to the aged transform and magically change into Santa's image.

Is there really a Santa? You know the one, the Santa that loads his sleigh with toys for all good boys and girls. The Santa that sneaks down the chimney late at night on Christmas Eve. The Santa that munches on cookies left by excited children.

Well, I did some checking and found that Santa's popularity increased so much over the past decades, that his sleigh just wasn't big enough to hold all those toys, trains, teddy bears and dolls. And, the eight tiny reindeer were struggling to pull the heavy, overloaded sleigh.

I think Santa was at a Peterbilt showroom one day last summer. He was almost unrecognizable in that t-shirt, striped shorts, and flip flops! But that beard, baseball cap with a white ball on top, and the jolly sound of 'ho-ho-ho' caught my attention. I heard him exclaim that he needed a heavy-hauler for an over-sized load.

I watched as he plunked down a sack filled with money, and strutted out the showroom doors, while holding a set of shiney new truck keys. I watched as he quickly climbed into the big red cab. The truck roared to life, with smoke billowing out the top of the gleaming chrome stacks.

What was this before my eyes? I had to follow, I had to know more. The truck rocked and rolled out on the highway. It turned right, then turned left, but just up ahead, it was still in my sight. The shiny red truck crossed over the tracks, and headed towards the mountains on the horizon to the west.

Sliding a disk in my cd player, it took just a second, but as I gazed up ahead the highway was empty. I couldn't believe my eyes, the bright red truck was gone and out of sight. I drove on, looking high and low, wondering what happened to the big red truck.

All of a sudden, there was a bright red flash before my eyes, as the Peterbilt flew by and raced upwards towards the clouds! I jumped out of my car and watched in amazement, as the truck rose higher into the sky. I blinked in amazement, this couldn't be real, but there it was right before my eyes.

The window opened to reveal a red coated, white bearded, jolly old man, laughing and waving to bid me ado. A red-nosed reindeer perched on the hood of the truck looked straight ahead with its head held high!

All of a sudden, I heard him exclaim, "On deck plate, on fifth wheel, on light bar, on chrome stack. On bumper, on shifter knob, on crossbar, on red dome light. Now drive away, drive away, drive away all. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!"