I’m just wondering, y’know?

Google

vs.

Norad

Heh, there’s not much I can add to this one. ;)

A Redditor reports that this cute kid note was written by a Muslim student in elementary school. […]

More at HuffPo…

hosted.ap.org

Santa Claus set records Christmas Eve he raced across the globe on his on his traditional holiday mission.

Santa tracking volunteers at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado said they fielded about 102,000 telephone queries beginning early Saturday on his progress, breaking the previous mark of 80,000.

And his NORAD Facebook page recorded about 999,000 “likes,” compared with 716,000 a year ago. Twitter followers increased from about 53,000 last year more than 89,000.

Officials said records set this year were likely generated by people passing the word as well as social media interest.

“I think what happens is that every year the ones the participated” tells others, Canadian Navy Lt. Al Blondin. “There’s word of mouth.”

Volunteers at NORAD Tracks Santa said kids started calling at 4 a.m. Saturday to find out where Santa was.

The cinnamon rolls for breakfast are in the oven.

Santa has made his delivery and the stocking is full of little treats.

I am soon to bed for the couple of hours of sleep I’ll get till a hyper-excited very nearly 10 year old needs to start shredding paper.

May everyone of you have a great day tomorrow and on all the rest as well.

Brightest Blessings,

William

noradsanta.org

This year you can count down the days to Santa’s takeoff with the official NORAD Tracks Santa app. Enjoy playing “Elf Toss” throughout the month and then on December 24th, follow Santa with Google Maps for mobile by searching for [santa].

Terry Gilliam - The Christmas Card

nytimes.com

Here, at the nation’s oldest, most celebrated, school for would-be Santa Clauses, much has stayed exactly the same over its nearly 75 years. A proper Claus ought to have pleasant breath, his beard curled just so and a hearty laugh that rumbles not from the throat but from deep below the diaphragm.

Yet this year, from the holiday parades, to the cheery carols piping from Main Street loudspeakers, to the “this way to Santa” lines at shopping centers, something more sobering has cast its shadow: the economic slump.

The result is a Christmas season in which Santas — including the 115 of them in this year’s graduating class of the Charles W. Howard Santa Claus School — must learn to swiftly size up families’ financial circumstances, gently scale back children’s Christmas gift requests and even how to answer the wish some say they have been hearing with more frequency — “Can you bring my parent a job?”

Santas here tell of children who appear on their laps with lists that include the latest, most expensive toys and their parents, standing off to the side, stealthily but imploringly shaking their heads no. On the flip side, some, like Fred Honerkamp, have been visited by children whose expectations seem to have sunk to match the gloom; not long ago, a boy asked him for only one item — a pair of sneakers that actually fit.

More

washingtonpost.com

Nordic uber-grinchen?

STOCKHOLM — Police say two men dressed as Santa Claus have robbed a guard at Stockholm’s royal castle of his assault rifle.

Police spokesman Anders Krook says the duo attacked the guard in the early hours of Friday morning, entering his security zone by the castle and beating him up before fleeing the scene with his loaded AK5 rifle. A colleague came to the guard’s aid and he was not seriously injured.

Krook says the robbers were dressed in Santa hats and masks. They made no attempt to enter the castle, which is not the royal family’s residence. There are no suspects in the case.

Fever Swampers are already accusing the local Muslim population, who are well-known to disguise themselves as Christian saints when they perpetrate their outrages.
FN Ak 5. If you see Santa with one of these, call the Swedish cops, or any cop for that matter.