Merry *sniff* Christmas

Santa returned to Northern Saskatchewan with me in tow for the third year in a row. It was Santa’s 11th trip, but the third one I had the pleasure of joining.

Each year Transwest Air loads Santa, his elves, gifts and a group of excited looking journalists on to one of their planes for a multi-stop flight —Wollaston Lake, Fond-du-Lac, Stony Rapids and Black Lake.

I love the trip. It gives me the chance to get up to communities rarely seen by most people in the province.

The kids are always happy to see Santa. They crush together in the school gym, band offices and airport lounge to get a gift and reveal what they want for Christmas.

They share their wants, cookies and excitement with us journalists, who snap photos and get clips for our stories.

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But, joy is not all they share. One young girl nicely enough, shared her cold with me.

It was in Wollaston Lake, where I was taking a photo. My subjected looked up at the camera and grinned. I took the photo, put the camera down and she sneezed. It was approximately the same time I breathed in.

It was one of those moments when I really wanted to scream, but knew that response would have been over the top.

I simply coughed and mentally started the timer of how long a cold virus needs to incubate before I would start feeling symptoms.

Three days later with a runny nose and I am doing my best to not pass on her germs. Nothing screams Merry Christmas like a wicked head cold.

Usually a cold doesn’t slow me down much, but a lack of sleep, heavy workload and a tendency to over extend myself has resulted in the overwhelming desire to nap my days away.

Lots of Kleenex, cold medication and hot tea with ginger and lemon later and I am starting to feel better.

Soon this cold will just be an additional memory of another great trip to the north — the things that linger are the photos and excited cheers of the kids.

Now excuse me, I’ve got to go blow my nose.

ahill@panow.com