Reindeer Food

I had never heard of the oddity that is "reindeer food" until I moved to Pittsburgh, but it sure is unavoidable with preschools and such around here. Alexis used to make it every year when she was tiny and now Mila does. A little bit of oatmeal, a whole lot of glitter, and there's inexpensive magic to spread in the yard for the reindeer to eat while Santa is busy climbing down the chimney and stealing cookies. I'll admit it's a cute idea; mostly I just roll my eyes about it because there are SO many things to remember at Christmas. What's one more?

(An aside ... it turns out that if you just stop moving the Elf, nothing bad happens. Whowouldathunkit? At least that means I have one less thing to try to remember.)

So Mila came home with reindeer food before the holidays and she was SUPER excited about it. She was super excited and we were all super distracted and WHOOPS. We forgot to put out the reindeer food for Christmas Eve.

Mila had concerns when she realized what we had done. She had enough concerns to talk about it for a few days ("The reindeer are going to be hung-ger-y!") and it very quickly became the conversation I didn't want to have. There's no talking sense into an upset 3-year old, so you just have to sort of listen and nod and say nice things.

Or let the universe fix it all for you.

Western Pennsylvania is a hotbed of deer activity. I slam on my brakes to avoid one at least once per day and often more than that because SHEESH THEY ARE EVERYWHERE. I have actually already hit one this winter (with minimal damage to all involved parties, fortunately) and nearly hit basically all of the rest of them.

Including the one on Monday.

I was within millimeters. We were driving down a heavily wooded road and just as we rounded a bend, there was the deer jumping across the middle of the road. I slammed on the brakes and thankfully narrowly avoided A Very Bad Evening.

Of course, you can't slam on your brakes without getting a LOT of questions from the backseat drivers. As luck would have it, Mila saw with her own eyes why we had suddenly stopped. "Woooook! It's a reindeer! Awwww! It's so cute!"

Deer = Reindeer in her head. Don't bother telling her otherwise unless you have six hours to spend arguing with a 3-year old. Spoiler alert: You'll lose. I don't care how good you are at arguing, you will always lose when arguing with a 3-year old. Also, you should probably focus on the adorableness of the kid's excitement rather than technical details. Life is better that way.

So, Mila was really very excited to have seen a reindeer and then she realized said reindeer was probably looking for food and YOU GUYS, SHE HAD A BAG OF UNEATEN REINDEER FOOD AT HOME.

All of the excitement followed as Mila tried to get me to turn around and pick up the deer so we could give it a ride to our house. She had full intentions of taking it home so she could share her reindeer food with a real reindeer who could use a little help in life.

3-year olds really are the best.