(Click here to read Part One and here to read Part Two).

Morganne and I exchanged looks.

“Annelise, why is Santa in our bedroom?”

“It’s a long story, but now I’m driving him to the airport. Want to join?”

Morganne looked at her textbook and then at Santa, probably making a mental pro/con list before deciding, “I think this is too weird for me not to go.”

Morganne, Santa, and I walked to my car. Santa took shotgun, which I think bothered Morganne (it’s her spot) but she wanted to stay on Santa’s good side so she kept quiet.

As I slowly merged into traffic, Santa noticed my cautious driving: “Look, no pressure, but we’re trying to save Christmas here, and I promise I won’t put you on the naughty list if you drive a little over the speed limit.”

“Thank you! I tell her that all the time,” Morganne remarked smugly as she and Santa fist-bumped.

As I sped down the road, I decided to turn on some Christmas music. As “Santa Baby” played on the radio, Santa piped up: “Could you turn that off?”

“You don’t like Christmas music?” I asked Santa, figuring this would have been his preferred genre.

“See, people sing all these songs about me, but they don’t really know me. I guess I’m just a private person, hence my sneaking into houses at night and living in the most deserted part of the planet.”

“Oh, okay,” I awkwardly replied as I changed the dial to country.

“Also, I hate country,” Santa interjected as he turned on the pop station.

After about twenty minutes of Santa singing along to Ariana Grande – it’s about as weird as it sounds – we dropped him off at the airport.

“Thanks for the ride, kids. Merry Christmas!”

Morganne and I called out, “Merry Christmas, Santa! Have a safe flight,” as we drove out of the airport. Before we lost sight of him, though, I heard the click of Morganne’s iPhone.

“Did you just take a stalker shot of Santa?” I asked, more proud than embarrassed.

“Of course! I’m going to show it to my professor if he asks why I failed his exam.”

****

When Morganne and I woke up the next morning, we felt exhausted but also more excited for Christmas than we’d been since we were kids. I went to my exam, which I actually didn’t fail, with more belief in the good of the world than ever before. Sure, Santa was kind of a weirdo, but he was real.

As I left my exam, I walked past the library and could not find Santa’s sleigh anywhere. Maybe the elves were quick to retrieve it? Still, a part of me thought that maybe Morganne and I had mustered up enough Christmas spirit in our helping deed to make the sleigh fly.

As I reveled in my Christmas joy, a CNN News Alert flashed on my phone: “Unmanned flying object crashes over Charlottesville, VA. No word yet of Russian or ISIS involvement. Some observers claim the object resembles Santa’s sleigh.”

So maybe we didn’t have enough Christmas spirit to fly the sleigh back to the North Pole, but during finals week I’d say flying it at least a mile is some accomplishment.