Every year it is the same thing. Santa for some unexplained reason thinks it is perfectly acceptable to come sneaking into my house on Christmas Eve. Why can’t he come during normal visiting hours? And better yet, how does he do it without waking me, the best guard dog in the neighborhood?

Last year I thought I had a fool proof plan to catch Santa in the act of breaking into my home. Problem is I didn’t factor in the “fool” part. The plan last year was to have Asa disguised as a teddy bear under the Christmas tree to greet Santa. Asa, bursting with Holiday cheer, would no doubt start singing and dancing to welcome the intruder. Which in turn would wake me from my long winter’s nap. Unfortunately though Asa spent the entire day practicing his big performance to welcome Santa, and inevitably ran out of energy. He slept through Santa’s visit, thus enabling the Jolly Old Elf to sneak in undetected again.

But not this year! This year I have a new plan, thanks to Mom. She strategically hung jingle bells on the lower branches of our tree to alert her if Asa decided to peek at the gifts. Well those bells will also come in quite useful for when Santa is stacking my pile of presents under the tree tonight! No doubt he’ll accidentally jingle a few, which will immediately wake Asa, who in turn will wake me with his enthusiastic greeting of Santa. After all, everyone knows “Every time a bell rings… Asa will start dancing with Holiday cheer!” Or at least that’s the saying in our home.

Now if you’ll please excuse me, I need to rest up because I have a busy night ahead preparing my speech for Santa, telling him it isn’t nice to break into houses, even if it is to leave gifts. I’ve seen him hanging out in malls, pet stores, and a whole host of other places. So why now is he suddenly shy and sneaking in when everyone is sleeping to deliver his gifts? Surely if he’s that embarrassed by what he is giving, he shouldn’t be leaving them! So many questions, but tonight I’ll get my answers!