To The Ridiculous Rowdy Reindeer

I was driving in our car the other day, listening to Christmas music (yes, starting Oct. 1st, I listen to Christmas music) and I started thinking about Christmas last year. Eli was only a few months old, so colicky, cried all the time, was still sleeping only 2 hours at a time and was generally up 3-5 times nightly. I was sleep-deprived, exhausted, stressed about the costs of Christmas, and in general, a mess. Usually I love Christmas, but last year, I was not loving it at all. I had no Christmas spirit whatsoever. All I wanted from Santa was a good night’s sleep, and he was not delivering.
About 3 weeks before Christmas someone knocked on my door in the middle of the day. On my doorstep was a poinsettia and a loaf of fresh bread, with a typed note saying it was from the Ridiculous Rowdy Reindeer.
And thus began the funnest 2 ½ weeks ever. Everyday something was left on our door. There was a CD of Christmas music for Eli, gift cards to the movies, treats and all sorts of surprises. They were all left with cryptic notes from the Ridiculous Rowdy Reindeer. We spent HOURS (literally hours) discussing who the RRR could be. We tried non-stop to catch them, to figure out who it was. Once they left something on our door on a rainy day. Isaac ran outside, looking at the footprints left from the rain. He measured them and went around for weeks starting at the soles of our friends shoes, trying to see who had matching tread and feet the same size. We held all of our conversations in the kitchen, right next to the window so that we could see someone sneaking up to the door. Once Isaac literally spent 3 hours standing in front of our peep hole, waiting for someone to walk up. And when he finally took a 2 min. bathroom break, there was a knock on the door (I am not kidding you – he spent 3 hours staring out that peep hole, left for a second and they came).
We became more obsessed and increased the hours we spent staring out our kitchen window, constantly trying to think of ways we could catch the RRR. But the Ridiculous Rowdy Reindeer was tricky and started being sneakier. Once they had a neighborhood kid bring our treat up to our door and the little girl refused to answer our questions about the RRR (we finally stopped grilling her when she started looking like she might start shouting ‘Stranger Danger’). Once a pizza boy came with a pizza, rootbeer and a note on the inside of the box from the RRR. We tried bribing the pizza boy to tell us who bought the pizza, asking him to look at the credit card receipt, but to no avail. One night we stayed up so late, waiting for the RRR and they never came. We were really bummed and getting ready for bed when my phone rang. There was no caller number on my cell, it just said ‘unknown’. I answered and a voice cackled and said ‘The Ridiculous Rowdy Reindeer strikes again!’. We looked on our front door and there was another surprise from the RRR.
We kept a detailed list of when the RRR came, what the notes said, if the handwriting matched other notes, etc., trying to find any clue that would tell us who the RRR was, and while we had suspicions, we never found out anything.
1 year later and we still think about the RRR and try to figure out who it is. Everything that the RRR did for us last year seriously made our Christmas. We had the best time ever trying to figure out who it was and wondering what would happen that day. I am assuming that the RRR is someone we know and there is a possibility that they read our blog, so RRR, if you are out there and reading, THANK YOU! You made our Christmas last year so great! It gave me something to look forward to, in my sleep deprived, crazy, stressed out state, and something to be excited for. Look out Santa; you’ve got some major competition!