Santa is on his way...

Yesterday Santa came to our village. He went round the houses of the children giving presents out from his sleigh. The villagers then walked through the village to the other end where mulled wine and hot chocolate awaited. The Christmas tree lights were lit and everyone sang Christmas carols. It was a lovely start to Christmas. Today has been another milestone. Since Covid started I’ve been taking Toby to school because we couldn’t get transport reinstated. It took a lot of e-mails and a complaint before I was finally told a couple of weeks ago that there was no chance of getting transport for many months because there were many children with no transport still due to Covid (heaven knows what’s happening to their education!). However with my back going, and Toby is due to do four afternoons a days a week in school from January (Covid mitigations in place to keep him safe) I really needed transport. So I flagged up the response with the lady who dealt with the complaint and amazingly a taxi was found within days. You never quite know who you will get, and you have to explain the arrangements (we drop off at the front and pick up at the back). The driver was coming from another town too. So there was a bit of apprehension. This lunchtime Toby has been picked up by a mask wearing, window open, taxi driver. The excitement on his little face as he sat in the car was absolutely heart warming. He was beaming from ear to ear. Although the taxi and driver was new to him, and he had no escort for the first time, it was clearly a familiar routine that he has now got back. What was even more heart warming was the taxi driver turned round, saw Toby’s happy face, grinned broadly and said ‘Aww!’. I know they will be fine together. Originally published on 6.12.2021