Lavina's masterpiece: The little boy, the spatula and the befuddled old man with long, white, hair and beard

As you would suspect, given the fact that it took me two days to complete my posts on Kalib's birthday and in that two days I did not sit still, but encountered and photographed waitresses, baristas, ravens, airplanes, the moon and such, I had plenty of material from which to make today's post.

And then Lavina emailed this picture to me, that she took at Jacob's office Christmas party. When I opened her email I laughed. Last night, as I was lying in bed wondering when sleep might finally overtake me, I thought of this picture and laughed again. And then this morning when I awoke for the final time, once again all too soon to get a good night's sleep, I thought of this picture and laughed once more.

Laughing is not what I have been doing these past many weeks, before repeatedly falling briefly into and awakening from short spurts of troubled sleep.

Poor, befuddled, Santa!

But I understand - and you, dear reader, if you have been with this blog lately, and Kalib's various adventures with the spatula, you also understand.

So today, I am going to push all of my pictures aside and run only this, a masterpiece of subtle humor and love, shot not by me but Lavina. Other than this, I won't say anything about the photo, but will let it speak entirely for itself.

Please - this is a picture that needs to be seen at a larger size. So click here or on the photograph itself to see it bigger.

To see all posts that include Kalib and his spatula, click here.

In the interlude: Santa drops in on his next-door neighbors, sees some "folks dressed up like Eskimos" gets a high five and leaves a bit of good cheer behind

In the evening after the gathering at Warren Matumeak's house and the night before his funeral, I heard that Santa Claus had hopped over to Barrow from his nearby home at the North Pole. I dropped by the North Slope Borough building, where the Mayor's and Law offices were holding their office Christmas party for staff members and their families.

Other offices and departments would hold their own parties at the times and locations of their choosing.

I entered to the sight of excited children charging in ahead of their parents as classic Christmas Carols played on the sound system - the standards, such as "Silent Night," "Jingle Bells" and "The Christmas Song."

In one of those odd coincidences that Mel Torme could never have pictured in all of his imaginings, I took this picture of little Leila Sundai just as he sang these words:

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

Jack Frost nipping at your nose

Yuletide carols being sung by a choir

And folks dressed up like Eskimos...

I'm not making this up. That's just how it happened.

When you sang, did you even begin to envision such beauty, Mel Torme?

The parka was sewn by Leila's grandmother, her Aaka Nora Snowball.

As they waited for Santa to arrive, children posed in front of the tree.

Everyone waited in nervous anticipation, not quite certain what was about to happen. Then, suddenly, we heard the clatter of tuttu hooves, alighting atop the roof. Next, a big, fat man man stood at the top of the stairs laughing so hard that his belly shook like a bowl full of jelly.

To be quite frank, this scared the heck out of me. I was about to throw my camera away and to run screaming into the cold of the Arctic night when I saw little baby Kylen, held in the arms of Jordan Ahgeak, boldly gliding up the stairs toward Santa.

She drew back her little hand as if maybe she was going to slap him...

She didn't slap him. She gave him a high five! After I had witnessed such bravery met only with good will, my own courage returned. I did not throw my camera away. I did not flee screaming into the Arctic night, I stuck around to take pictures and eat cake.

Soon, little ones were filing by to get their gifts. Leila Sundai got hers.

As did little Ka'eo - whose blood is a beautiful mix of Iñupiat, Hawaiian and Asian.

As his proud grandfather, North Slope Borough Mayor Edward Itta cheered him on, little Noah Itta accepted Santa's gift. 

Kapono Texeira, brother to Ka'eo, received a Buzz Lightyear action figure.

Sisters Melissa and Madison posed by the tree.

Lily Brower and Leila spent some time enjoying the new friends that Santa had brought to them.