Her husband, Rory Feek, calls the moment a 'blessing' for the family.
“He was a week early, but right on time.”
So wrote Rory Feek, one half of the Grammy-nominated country duo Joey + Rory, of a visit from Santa Claus for his wife, Joey and their 22-month-old daughter, Indiana.
St. Nick stopped by couple’s home in Indiana on Friday, where Joey entered into hospice care last month after ending her cancer treatment in October.
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“The Kris Kringle that showed up at our door wasn’t your ordinary shopping-mall Santa. This one was the real deal,” 49-year-old Rory explained on his blog, This Life I Live. “Or as close to it as I’ve ever personally seen.”
This Santa “had the real beard, the real belly, and on top of that he had the kindest smile and a heart for special babies and mama’s with no hair,” he says of the family's visitor. “I loved him from the moment I met him.”
While Indiana apparently “took a little longer to warm up to him,” Joey, 40, and Santa were like “old friends.”
“He said he knew our music (I had no idea Santa was a country music fan) and was a little nervous about coming to see us -- not knowing what to expect -- or if Joey would be up for their visit,” Rory wrote. “I think once he saw my bride sitting on the couch and smiling when he came in, and enjoying the evening… he settled in and hopefully had as good a time as we did.”
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At the end of the night, the father of three called the visit a “blessing.” “Indy’s first time to meet Santa Claus… and Joey and I’s first chance to get to know him a little better,” he said
Though this Christmas will surely prove bittersweet for the family -- it could be the singer’s last -- Rory recently shared that the holiday is his favorite time of the year.
“My wife knows I love Christmas. I always have,” he wrote earlier this month. “There’s a magic that’s in the air that isn’t there any other time of the year. Christmas does what no amount of resolutions or self-help books can do… it changes people. It brings out the very best in us, and in others.”
Just yesterday, Joey shared “bedtime kisses” with Indiana on the infant’s 22-month birthday. See the sweet photographs in the video below: