Here Comes Santa...

We were out to dinner with the kids (minus Reilly) the other night and Darren comes back from taking Evan and Jacob to the bathroom only to tell me that Santa is dinning at this very restaurant. I ask the boys if he saw him and they both were all smiles. Darren wanted me to go take a look, but there was no way I was getting up from the table to seek out this supposed Santa. Jacob can't resist and has to go take another look. I'm thinking that this guy must just have a white beard and maybe on the large size - whatever, been there done that. I play it up for the kids and answer questions like: "Why is he eating here?" (Santa needs a vacation like everybody else I suppose), "How did he get here?" (I'm sure he can only use the sleigh when there is snow, so he probably drove his really cool red convertible) - you get the picture. It made for a fun night of lots of made up answers on my part (I can get pretty creative for the right audience) and just as we were finishing up I look up to see...


My jaw literally fell open. Not only did he have the whites beard I've ever seen, he had the gold glasses, the rosy cheeks and the bowl-full-of-jelly belly. He and his wife (white curly hair wearing a red coat with white fur trim, seriously - I couldn't make this stuff up!) come up to our table asking the kids if their good for Mom and Dad, if their good in school, what they want for Christmas... and then to top it all off she pulls out jingle bells attached to a Rudolph tag for each of the kids. I couldn't believe my eyes. I was even starting to believe they were the real thing. Talk about playing up what ya got. They totally made our night and turned this Grinch into a believer. Thanks for the kindness Santa and Mrs. Claus, I know you're out there spreading smiles to kids and parents alike (even on your off time:)