It was the afternoon of Christmas Eve. Mike “Finn” Finocchiaro was dressed as Santa. His two daughters – ages 2 and 6 – were done up as elves, as were his wife and sister. In the back of the truck were boxes full of presents for the children at St. Margaret’s Shelter, a safe space for families wrestling with homelessness, domestic violence and other chaos. At first, Finn pulled up in front of the shelter on Hartson, but was told it would be better to leave that spot – the closest to the front door – open. He pulled into the empty parking lot – and into one of three open handicapped spots. “I never, ever park in handicapped spots,” Finn said. “Never, ever, ever.” Except this time. A shelter worker had told him to park wherever he needed to, he had a bunch of presents to unload, and he figured he’d be in and out in a short enough time that no one would be hurt, he said/Shawn Vestal, SR. More here.

Question: How often do you see abled people parking in a handicap spot?

“Works almost every time,” writes Marianne Love/Slight Detour. “A walk through virtually any portion of the vast Kootenai Valley serves as an antidote to the blahs.  Yesterday was no exception.” More photos/text here.

Top Blog Post: The other day, I was with my mom and nieces at one of the malls in our area.  The girls wanted to see Santa, so we waited in line to see him.  I started to wonder about this Santa long before we got in to see him, because he makes the kids stand in front of him and tell them what they would like for Christmas, instead of sitting next to him in his giant chair, or sitting on his knee.  Well, I guess he lets those paying to get their picture taken with him sit on his knee, but they are the only ones/Live, Love, Laugh, Hope. More here.

• Bob Seger climbs into bed with WalMart/Atmospheric Ruminations
• Are promotional ads misleading?/Bay Views
• Magic & Christmas are often the same/Community Comment
• Don't let Gingrinch steal Christmas/Dogwalk Musings
• 1 family member's bore, another's fantastic story/From A Simple Mind
• Feeding the beast/This Is Not A Fairy Tale
• Confessions of a <delete>hoarder</delete> collector/Nuts & Nonsense
• How reaching your goals is like touching your toes/3R's Blog
• Lunch/Tumblewords
• A writer's wish list/Writing North Idaho

HucksOnline Blog number (for week of Nov. 27-Dec. 3): 45,753/28,806

Question: Have your kids ever had a close encounter w/a bad store Santa?

This Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2009 image made from video released by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department shows a man dressed as Santa robbing the Sun Trust Bank in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Metropolitan Nashville Police Department)

Top cutlines:

#1 On the way out of the bank, the robber Santa could be heard singing “Fleeced Navidad”. JohnA.

#2 “Times are tuff lady! Do you know the cost of reindeer food has gone up two-fold and with the economy this year there wont be enough milk and cookies to feed all my elves through till next Christmas.. Now, NO dye packs dammit!” coeurgenx

#3 Sorry, miss. That Brodwater kid wants another Star Wars Legos set. Taryn Hecker

Does anyone really enjoy Secret Santa? Is mistletoe just an excuse to grope the unsuspecting?

Here’s some Christmas traditions some could do without:

Secret Santa: Here’s the way Secret Santa should work: everyone in the office brings a $20, puts it in a hat, the hat gets shuffled up, and everyone takes out a $20. And then you say “Hey, $20! I can really use that! Thanks, Secret Santa!” and you go back to online shopping at your desk.

Leaving Anything Other than Cookies for Santa: Okay, you can get away with a carrot for the reindeer, but beyond that? Things are out of hand. The elves want midget porn, Ms. Claus wants some Midol, Frosty the Snowman’s looking for something from one of the local dispensaries to fill that corncob pipe. Everyone’s got their hands out nowadays.

More here.

(Though I totally disagree with the one about no stockings for your pets. Like Santa would forget Milo!)