As we close on a Monday.

Hello to you all,





First, please review my past entries for this year's blog. Some changes were made to protect the innocent (ME).

Right now it is 53 degrees outside with buckets of rain coming down! We had a high 70 if you can believe that, but the real news is the rain. We had rain of every description today and it's not going to stop until tomorrow after noon. I think I may need a boat instead of a sleigh. I did remind people, however, that if the rain was SNOW, we'd have 7-8' of the white stuff.

Today was a really long day if I say so myself. Due to the weather the number of kids was artificially low because moms do not want to go out in this stuff either. Even so, it was a great training day for my assistants/helpers. A large number of parents just wanted to stroll their kids by Santa to see how they would react. I think this is a great idea. Then when they come back, they are more comfortable with the "dude in the red suit."

OK, here's one for all you followers (and you know who you are). A mom wanted me to have pictures taken with her two children. I knew something was up as soon as they walked up to me; I could just smell it. I put the first kid on my right knee, and the mom was going to plop the second child on my left. I grabbed the child and was lifting him as she was putting him down, I kept lifting, and she kept wanting him on my knee. Then she looked at me. I looked her square in the eyes and then looked down. She looked down and then lifted him up. He pooed his pants and it was going down his leg through the jeans. She saw my point and rushed him off while I talked with the other child and watched the father standing there wondering about what just happened.

Now for those of you that don't know, if I got one drop of that on me the whole process stops and I have to leave. I have to get out of those pants/clothing as fast as I can, and they go straight to the cleaners after I spot clean them. If I don't have the right piece of replacement clothing, I have to leave the mall to get new/clean clothing. Now just so you know, I always carry extra of everything except for my coat and hat. So as you can see, it's a BIG DEAL if Santa gets soiled even a little. But as they say, "no harm, no foul."

I will be sharing pictures tomorrow.

Keep smiling,

Santa Joe