Joey Feek and Her Family Receive a Very Special Visit from Santa Claus: 'A Week Early, But Right on Time'

'This one was the real deal,' Rory Feek writes of the Kris Kringle who visited the Feek family ahead of Christmas

Photo: Rick Diamond/Getty

Christmas came early for Joey Feek.

The country singer and her daughter Indiana, 22 months, were visited by Santa Claus on Friday evening, husband Rory wrote on his blog This Life I Live on Friday night.

“He was a week early, but right on time,” Rory, 50, wrote, adding that, “The Kris Kringle that showed up at our door wasn’t your ordinary shopping-mall Santa. This one was the real deal … or as close to it as I’ve ever personally seen.”

He continued: “He 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 … I loved him from the moment I met him.”

Although Rory said baby Indiana took some time to warm up to Santa, he wrote that their visitor stayed to talk “for a long, long time.”

Rory recently shared on his blog that although Joey, 40, is under hospice care for terminal cervical cancer, their Alexandria, Indiana, community has been generously working to give the Feeks a “very special Christmas.”

This Christmas is an especially bittersweet one for the Grammy-nominated country music duo Joey + Rory, as it could be Joey’s last.

In November, Rory shared his wife’s “hope that she might be able to still be here for Christmas, or for Indiana’s second birthday in February,” saying that Joey is relying on her strong sense of faith to carry her through what might be her final days.

“I don’t fear anything because I’m so close to God and we’ve talked about it so many times,” Joey told The Tennessean in November. “I know he’s close. And I know he loves me. I’m really at peace. I still believe there’s healing in prayer.”