A noise outside led to one heck of a discovery! by Mark Vogl
(conservative)
Monday, December 26, 2011
" A Rebel Mountain Story of Christmas I’m fixin’ to tell ya something interesting, which you are never gonna’ believe.
Grab a hot cup of cider and settle into your chair. Christmas Eve night was kinda cold and drizzly. I woke up sometime after midnight cause I heard something outside. There's been lots of coyotes round, and we just had a brood of baby goats, kids, so I got up, put on my Citadel blue bathrobe, grabbed my .35 caliber lever-action rifle and headed out the back door towards the pasture.
It was dark, heavy clouds obstructed the Milky Way. I didn't turn on any lights ‘cause all they do is ruin my night vision. I heard the light clamor of bells, the clinks getting louder as I walked out the hundred yards towards my pasture. At first I thought I saw a really large 8 point buck, then another right behind the first...then a couple more, all standing in line, harnessed. And behind the deer was a huge red sleigh.
In the front seat of sleigh was a fury red jacket, with white trim and a red Santa hat. The back of the sleigh was almost empty…a lot of empty brown canvas bags. a few still containing wrapped presents. As I turned the back corner of the sleigh, there he was. He had a full head of white bushy hair and beard. His boots were a polished, shiny black, his pants red, but his shirt, was kind of gray and woolly. And he had a gray kepi on his head! In his hand he had a small bottle with what appeared to be milk. He was slightly bent over and was feeding Noah...one of the kids, a baby goat whose mother had rejected him at birth; we are bottle feeding. How Santa knew that, I will never know. But, little Noah's tail was busy wagging, and you could hear the sucking sound of Noah on the bottle.
Well, I lowered my rifle and walked on towards Santa. Last time I had seen evidence of him, I was 7. His footprints were in the snow, from our chimney to our neighbor’s chimney. I had never seen him, but those footprints sure were solid evidence to me, at the time. Santa, turned his head as heard me approaching,
"Evening," he said, "Noah is getting a special treat tonight." Santa chuckled.
I paused only a moment; I had no troubles with accepting this was Santa. I walked up, close to him sitting my rifle on its' butt, with its' barrel resting against a fence post. I wanted to visit with him. And he was obliging, so we talked some.
"Could make some coffee inside for ya?" I asked.
"No, I really can't stay that long," he said.
"Yes, I guess you have a lot more homes to do."
"Not really, I am fixin' to finish up," he said with a Southern drawl, "I always end my night in Dixie; I was born in the South you know."
"Really," I said, "Where were you born?" He looked at me as if I should know, "Have you ever heard of the music group, Alabama?" "Yes, they are my favorite, and I have two of their Christmas albums!" I said proudly.
"Well, I was born just down the road from where they were born, in the mountains in northeast Alabama! Why do you think I wear so much red? I thought everyone knew" as he turned his attention back to little Noah who was sucking mostly air, as the bottle was just about empty.
"I didn't know that," I said, "So I guess flying north to go home, may not be your favorite part of the night?"
He handed me the bottle, and walked around the back of the sleigh and up to the front where his jacket and hat were laying on the seat. He put them on, climbed back in the sleigh and smiling looked down at me; "That stuff about the North Pole is some more of the revisionist Yankee history," he said with a twinkle in his eye.
My face kind of crinkled up, and I asked "How's that?"
"Mrs, Claus and I, and the elves live at the South Pole!" he chuckled as his whip cracked sharply in the night sky. The deer seemed to come to attention, and with the second crack the sleigh began to move, to pull forward, and in just a couple of yards the lead deer were in the air. The sleigh followed quietly, lifting into the air. I had not noticed 'til that moment, but as the sleigh pulled away and rose in to the sky I saw a Crimson battle flag spread, waving and snapping, its' pole anchored in the right rear corner of the sleigh,
The last words I heard him say in his deep booming voice, against the jingle of the bells on his deer's harness was "Merry Christmas Southland...."
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