Times are rough, no question about that. Two months ago Congress approved a 750 plus billion dollar bail out package that was intended to help banks and private landing institutions going belly up due to a dramatic lack of cash flow and disintegrated assets caused by investments that went bad during the recent Wall Street crash.

The three major car manufacturer big honchos are now pleading in front of a panel of Senators in order to receive a 25 billion dollar bail out package and avoid bankruptcy. A bankruptcy that would drop the country to its knees.

Jobs are lost by the thousands every week. Prices for food, transportation, utilities, and other necessities are at a record high. Manufacturing, spending, trading, and real estate prices are at their lowest in a very, very long time.

The country is in a recession with a strong possibility to slip into a depression similar to the one that hit the nation in the '30s.

All this and Christmas is only 11 days away!

I hope Santa doesn't go in front of Congress and asks for a bail out too. He definitely deserves one though! After all, he has hundreds of elves working in his shop, rain deer to feed, material to purchase, a big deadline to meet, and billions of "Dear Santa..." letters to read. I am sure his heating costs and his electrical bill would have gone sky high for average winter temperatures at the North Pole are close to 75 below zero and the sun light appears for a few minutes a day only during the winter, if Santa had not found a way to store and use solar energy during the summer. Without mentioning the astronomical physical and mental price he pays to generate his mysterious oil free †fuel energy that propels his sled around the world in one night at a supersonic speed. And his effort to slide down chimneys, deliver toys, eat the same dried out cookies and warm milk in each house (after a while, it must really get old!), climb up the same chimneys, jump on his sled, and off he goes to another house and another chimney. I can't even imagine the amount of detergent Mrs. Claus must use to wash up her husband's red clothes, boot, and hat after he returns home in the morning. And the soap and shampoo Santa needs to use to clean off all the soot he collected going up and down billions of chimneys! (Did I mention that the Claus household went "green" long time ago and Santa uses environmental friendly detergent, soaps and light bulbs?).

It's a tough job, no question about that.

I am sure Santa won't ask for a bail out though because contrary to some of our politicians, bankers, brokerage house's , landing company's, and big manufacturer's CEOs, as well as speculators, opportunists, and plain thieves, Santa is honest, hard working, and mostly he cares.

He cares about us, our Christmases, our children, our families, and our spirit. He cares that we have what we deserve, what we asked for because we have done something to merit such a reward. Whether in a simple form of a toy for a child who doesn't have any, a disease that goes away, a job that doesn't disappear, a friend who we haven't seen in a long while, or a love we never had. Whatever wish we asked for, Santa is there to try his best to deliver. No bail out, no free money, no pleading for something it should have been corrected long time ago.

Santa takes responsibility for his actions, as we all should, and on the night of December 24 and early hours of Christmas day, he will deliver. He will deliver the "goods" on a timely fashion, so that we can have our Christmas one more time. And perhaps, just perhaps we would have "helped" him out a little by wishing for less of the material things and curving our constant desire to consume.

My wish for this Christmas is that our Government and the people in power follow Santa's way.

Happy Holidays everyone!