The rather unexpected and early snowfall of Dec. 4-5 in Virginia, when about 12″ fell at my house, kept me from the weekend holiday schedule I’d planned. Instead of going shopping on Saturday and judging a horse show on Sunday, I stayed home both days and attended to domestic chores.

One of those tasks was unpacking and setting up the holiday lights and decorations around and outside the house. My 3 1/2 -year-old son, Cameron, helped my husband and me decide where to hang decorations and lights. And the more questions he asked about Santa Claus and Christmas, the more the holiday spirit overtook me. While the enchantment of Christmas can dissipate as you age, it’s definitely rekindled when your children explore the mystery and meaning that surrounds this time of year.

And it was fun to reminisce as questions I’d probably asked when I was a small child echoed in my ears, this time from my son. “Isn’t Santa Claus too fat to fit down the chimney?” he asked as we watched “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” on TV. And throughout the weekend I heard such queries as, “Why doesn’t Santa have horses instead of reindeer?” “How does Santa Claus know if I’m naughty?” “Where is the North Pole?”

These innocent questions were easy to answer until Saturday morning, when my husband noticed deer in our backyard. He had walked by the office where I was working and mentioned he was on his way out to scare them away, when Cameron ran to the window. The two small deer, obviously fawns of this past year, were in the process of bedding down in the snow where our yard meets the woods. “Why is Daddy going to chase them away?” Cameron asked. “They’re just tired.”

Deer have been a particular nuisance to us this past year. We had invested in many plantings last spring’including blanketing a hillside with flowers and shrubs’but the deer decimated them throughout the summer. My husband also severely damaged his new vehicle hitting a deer while driving on a major highway. So, whenever we see deer in our yard, our first thought isn’t “they’re so cute.”

But this time I had to pause. We decided to let these two deer remain where they were, resting in their beds of snow. Later, they browsed along the edge of our yard while looking for food, their tracks crisscrossing through the untouched white expanse. And when we went out and looked at their tracks, Cameron was intrigued.

On Sunday morning the two deer returned, bedding down again and spending several hours soaking up the sun. Cameron was glued to the window, watching them. I must admit, it was difficult for me to harbor resentment toward them. These two young deer were just trying to survive, and they’d found a sheltered yard where they could rest and find some food (luckily, it wasn’t what we’d planted!).

It’s not easy to forgive when things don’t go as you’d planned and disappointment results. But this time of year, especially, I try and focus on the positive. Now more than ever, I must remember this because I have a little shadow who follows me around, one that tends to repeat everything I say and do.

Do I want my son to remember us chasing the “reindeer” out of the yard one long ago snowy Christmastime? Nope. I’d rather he recall us filling the birdfeeder twice a day and providing safe harbor to two tiny deer that “looked like Rudolph.” After all, giving is what the holiday season is all about.