All Mr. Philena wants for Christmas is an alligator*

Traditionally, my family gathers in Florida with my paternal grandparents for Christmas. This would have been the first year I took Mr. Philena with me, but he, being who he is, thought that it was foolish to be so close to a national park without taking a peek at it, so we left a few days early to go to the Everglades! The whole way there, he was talking about alligators: this is how big they get, this is where you find them, here's a story about someone who saw one, this is what they look like, this is what you should do if you fall in the water when there are alligators around, but we shouldn't get our hopes up, he said, because then we'll be disappointed if we don't see one. But it was clear he was getting his hopes up, and all he wanted was to see just one alligator. Just one, and he'd be happy. That's all he wanted for Christmas.

( Did he get it? )