Santa

{Photo from our original visit to Santa.
Eleanor obviously wasn't impressed, although she seemed ok with him today...of course.}

This morning, after being cooped up in the house for two days (when you live in the hottest shopping district in the city, you don't go out this time of year unless you HAVE to), I decided I'd wrap the kids up and take them to the mall first thing this morning. I wanted to pick up a small stocking stuffer for Barry and figured I'd let them run out some energy at the mall.

 

Henry wanted to walk by and see Santa while we were there...we had visited him last week, so I explained we couldn't talk to him but we'd walk by and wave at him. Santa hours hadn't started yet, so we killed some time and then went to the elevator to go to the upper level where the Santa area of the mall is. We were waiting to ride the elevator up, the doors open, and Santa is standing there...in street clothes.

 

I thought Henry's eyes were going to fall out of his head. "Santa" gave a little ho-ho-ho, waved at us and walked down the hallway through an "employees only" door. Henry didn't say a word until he was out of sight and then looked at me and said, "Why was Santa wearing a baseball cap?" LOL Luckily, we had a conversation that very morning about why he couldn't wear his Batman costume to the mall (me: "Even Batman doesn't go the mall in his costume...he wears regular clothes"), so I explained the same applies to Santa. "Maybe," I said, "he's out picking up a few stocking stuffers for Mrs. Claus before he goes to talk to the other kids who are here to visit today."

But that wasn't the best part. Henry wanted to see him again so we waited until the Santa hours started and then walked by that area hoping we could get another glimpse at him. We walked up to the fencing around him and Santa looked over at us and said, "Hello, Henry, how are you?"

 

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

 

Best moment of Henry's life, no question. Little guy was wearing a knitted winter hat that has his name knitted into it, which is how Santa knew his name, but of course Henry doesn't know that. He just looked at me and whispered, "He remembers me."

So, so priceless. One of the best moments of MY life. My sweet boy was so blown away and I was crying at how wondrous it all was for him.

 

Best mall trip ever. :)