we have the coolest santa

We have always been told that THE Santa to visit in OKC is at the mall in of course THE part of town to live in. We went once, stood in line for a couple of hours, got shuttled through, picture, picture and off we go. Now that guy is so popular (at least among the brown mooing herd) that they give you pagers like at a restaurant so you can go and shop until your turn comes.
Needless to say, after that first encounter we said no thanks. So now we go to the mall near our house. This guy is the coolest. He reads to the kids who are there about once an hour. Not effecient, but the kind of thing Santa would do don't you think? A couple of years ago when Caleb wanted something that none of us had ever seen and weren't sure existed, Santa asked him all kinds of questions to get him to describe it, all the while looking at me to make sure I was paying attention and taking notes on what needed to appear. This year, the big news at our house was the introduction of the song I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus (Hannah did her dance recital to it -- yep went to another one), so the big question for the Santa visit was "would Mommy really do it?" Well, if you know Kenda at all, she is Santa's biggest fan, so of course she did. What was not expected was Santa then standing up and opening his arms to hug me. I have to tell you, it's been a year or two (or 25) since I hugged Santa and I must say, it felt pretty good.
Now for those who frown on followers of Jesus who let their kids believe in Santa (and I must say that ALL of mine (yes, including the 8 year old) are still true believers (come to think of it, Kenda is still one herself), I will simply say that Santa is in proper perspective at our house. He isn't why we have Christmas or the center of our celebration. I won't defend him, but I will say that the act of hugging a total stranger such as myself for no real reason other than to do it comes off far more like Jesus than most of the good church folk I know.

Setting out cookies tonight (and carrots too, now that the kids have seen The Santa Clause)
j