Santa

I met the real Santa Claus the other day! I swear to you...I'm a believer now.

If I had a scanner, I'd show you the picture of Andrew sitting on his lap. What?, you say? Andrew sat on a stranger's lap? Yeah buddy.

We went to JCPenney to pick up Andrew's 2 year old portraits (which turned out surprisingly well). Andrew was in a FABULOUS mood, so we decided to walk the mall while we were there (time killer). Andrew ran from one end of the mall to the other in the eternal search for fountains. I had no change, so this was a slight damper on the experience, but again, he was in such a good mood he dealt with it with smiles.

We did the other normal mall things like dancing outside Hollister Co. And I mean hip swiveling, hand pumping, GET DOWN dancing. White man may not be able to dance, but Andrew's got the groove, baby! We jumped on the beanbag bed display set up in the middle of the store (and by "we" I mean Andrew). He also did cute things like walking in front of me clasping his hands behind his back. Like a little 3 foot college professor.

We're having a GREAT time walking around when we see Santa's lair. Andrew runs towards it. He likes to wave at Santa and point out Santa and Ho Ho Ho like Santa, but please don't take him too close. This is a child that has a hard time making physical contact with the 2 year old across the street. Expecting him to cuddle up with a 300 pound stranger with a fuzzy face is illogical.

Andrew waved at Santa. I asked if he wanted to go in (there was no line at all). No thanks. Santa called out asking me his name. Once Santa called out "Andrew, Santa wants to say hello. Come here and see me, Andrew", my boy was game. So we walk through the maze of Christmas cheer that leads you into Santa. And then I became convinced that this was the real Santa.

This man had no false parts added on to enhance his appearence as Santa. He had a nose like a cherry and two round red cheeks, and a belly of jelly, and a real white whispy beard. He was the real deal. And he was so KIND to Andrew, it made my heart melt.

He got Andrew to stand close to his chair. He held one hand and started talking to Andrew. What is your name? How old are you? Is it snowing outside? What did you do at the mall today? Finally, What can Santa bring you for Christmas? Through all of these questions Andrew is looking stony faced. Then Santa points at Andrew's shirt and says "I see you have a car on your shirt. Do you like race cars?" And Andrew's dam was broken. He started jabbering away at Santa about cars and race tracks and ramps, etc. Santa eases him up onto his lap while he's jabbering away and we snap a picture. Andrew seriously was best friends with Santa by this time.

I bought the super expensive picture. You know why? Because that nice man spent 5 minutes with my kid, and now Andrew will have a good feeling about Santa. Sure, there was no line and the guy was probably bored out of his mind. I still think he went above and beyond the call of duty for a minimum wage job.

So believe...there IS a Santa.

Oh, and as a note. Now when people ask Andrew about Santa, he gets very excited. And he always tells them that he wants cars from Santa. I wasn't planning on getting him more cars for Christmas (he got about 20 for his birthday in this huge car carrier thing). But it looks like I'll be adding something to my shopping list!