Santa's List.

A couple of years ago, my husband made a huge sign that he hung up along the side of the road going up towards the main highway. The wood sign, with red letters on a white background, is 'Santa's Naughty and Nice List.'   My husband built the sign and painted it, and I used red paint and a small brush to write all the names of the neighbors that live along our road.

Being that the sign was up near the main highway, we didn't get to see anyone's reaction to Santa's List, but we hoped that everyone enjoyed finding their names in either the naughty column or the nice one.  Hoping not to offend any of the neighbors that first year, we put just our own names on the naughty side, along with one other neighbor whom we knew would rather not be in the nice column. (When she found her name on the naughty side, she said "Everyone knows that being nice all the time is just too boring.")

This year, the sign is propped up on our back porch near the door... so everyone can look for their names as they arrive at our Christmas party. We also decided to re-do parts of the sign and remove the names of the few neighbors who prefer to be more private than neighborly. I took the white paint and just painted over those particular names. In their places, I added our friends who always come to our Christmas party even though they don't live on our road.  I even painted over some of the check-marks in the naughty and nice columns. A few of the neighbors who had been on the nice side will now find themselves in the naughty column.

Without a doubt, we do know which of the neighbors would smile at being taken out of the nice column and added to the naughty side.... so that's how we decided which names went where.  I had been about to paint over a particular couple's check-mark in the nice column to add them to the naughty side just for fun, and then my eye caught the name of their sweet little dog that I had printed next to their names.

Honestly... how could I possibly put Bella's name in the naughty column? This is the little Chihuahua that comes to our Waldorf Wednesday tea parties all dressed up in her Sunday-puppy best, complete with jeweled accessories. Bella on Santa's naughty list? I think not. (I also think that Bella should get extra treats from Santa for saving her people from being put into the naughty column.) Maybe the title of this post should have been "Saved by the Bella."