HO! HO! HO!

I did the Santa thing yesterday, and it was rather fun. The kids were ADORABLE! Some of course were to shy to come over to me, but some would come running to me, and give me a big hug. This one little boy saw me when he came into the store, bolted down the isle, and literally jumped into my arms.. I'm glad I caught him. Once he caught his breath, I asked him what he wanted for Christmas, and he said: "Umm... umm.. umm.. now I forgot." It reminded me of that scene from the movie Christmas Story, where Ralphie gets so excited to be talking with Santa, that he forgets what he wanted. I was tempted to ask the kid How about a nice football?", but I told him to send me a letter when he remembered what he wanted. The cutest thing was this little girl who is four years old.. she was so shy.. but I won her over, and now she thinks she and Santa are best friends. She waved to me on the way out of the store and yelled out "It was nice meeting you!!"

The not so fun part of the whole Santa gig was the costume. The beard was annoying as hell. Santa needs to update his look and go clean shaven.. or maybe a goatee. We kept getting comments from people that Santa was "too skinny". A father even went so far as to say "Instead of milk and cookies, this Santa only seems to like skim milk and rice cakes". Nice for my ego, but bad for the Santa image. So we got a huge roll of this cotton bunting material, and stuffed the jacket part of the costume. -- Brought back memories of when I was that big! LOL I sat down, and couldn't see my knees anymore... and let me tell ya, that shit made the costume like a sauna!!! Ugh.. and I get to wear it this up coming Saturday too.

Yesterday evening I went to my good friend Bobby's for a pasta dinner with our friend Dan. That Dan is a riot, and a great story teller... and he gets better looking each time I see him. Bobby's house is by far my favorite "restaurant" in town. He's an awesome chief. We always have such a great evening together, like a mini holiday in and of themselves. Good times!!!!!!

Ended up going with Mom to a candle light memorial/prayer service (not a mass) held at the cemetery where my Grandparents are, sponsored by Hospice. I had no desire to go, but Mom REALLY wanted to, and there was no one else to go with her, so I went. It was a nice ceremony, and there were a lot of people there, of all age groups. Wasn't my cup of tea, but Mom seemed to feel better.