April 30, 2007

I Know Where Santa Spends The Off Season

We have never done the Santa thing. We’ve never sat on his lap in the mall, we’ve never set out cookies and milk for him, and we’ve never hidden presents under the tree from Santa. In fact in our legalistic past as early first time parents, we made a huge point of telling the kids that it was just some guy dressed in a red suit at the mall. But by the time the last of our four children came around, we just didn’t even bother talking about it at all. So whatever he has learned about Santa was in the few Christmas movies that he’s watched.

We spent the day in Astoria, Oregon this weekend and no trip to Astoria is complete without eating at a restaurant called Pig and Pancake. All six of us piled into our gi-normous corner booth and ate our dinner. About half way through our meal, a man walked in that made all the children look and stare. He had flowing long white hair, a long full white beard, was about 65 years old and was wearing a bright red flannel shirt that stretched across his big round belly.

If ever there was a Santa Claus, we were looking at him!

My three year old, Gabe, couldn’t stop staring and finally the man took a seat at the other end of the restaurant.

When it was time to pay, Gabe walked right past the exit doors and with a determination only a three year old can have, marched right over to meet the man (with a panicked Daddy in tow). He stood within inches of the man and his dinner, waved and said "Hey-whoa", and climbed right up on his lap. The man must have been used to this, because he quickly entered into a conversation with Gabe consisting of what they had eaten and if he was a good boy for his mommy and daddy. Then, with a hug and a kiss from Gabe, their meeting was over and the man went back to his dinner.

OH, I WISH I HAD THE CAMERA!

Gabe happily jabbered about the “ nice Santa man” all the way home….punctuated with MANY choruses of Ho-Ho-Ho’s.

Chris and I rode home in total shock!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

OH NO HE DIDN'T!!!!

That is hilarious. I wonder if the nice man really has that happen to him a lot.

I love Gabe. He's so cute. Who can resist picking him up?

Chelle said...

Oh, I wish you'd had a camera too!! That's one of those stories you'll be telling for years. ;-)

EE said...

LOL!!
YOu're going to be in trouble, come December...better get out your Santa hat!!

DarkWing said...

That is soo sweet. (at least he waited until ya'll were leaving)

ConservaChick said...

That is so cute! I LOVE Santa. I totally force fed the myth to my children (despite the fact it was a BIG no no in homeschool circles). I even convinced my kids we all saw Rudolph's nose one year (yes, I know, bad liar momma). You know what's funny, my little guy says Santa's dumb. In fact all my kids were never all that in to him. Oh well, maybe next year Gabe and I should hang out during the Christmas season!

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