The Hud House: santa! i know him!

Pardon the Elf reference. It's one of my favorite Christmas movies, so I couldn't help it.

We took Lucas to see Santa! For some insane reason, I had it in my mind that it was going to be this magical wonderful experience. In my head, Lucas was going to gaze up at Santa with wonder and awe, maybe even give his beard a tug, and both would have a twinkle in their eyes as they smiled at each other. Not exactly. It was magical, don't get me wrong. The set up was beautiful and you couldn't ask for a sweeter Santa. He even smelled like peppermint. But Lucas didn't respond quite like I had envisioned.

First, let me tell you a little about this Santa I know. You see, I'm convinced he's the real Santa. His wife, Deb, works with me at the hospital (you didn't know Mrs. Claus was a pediatric nurse, did you?) Every year at Christmas, Santa (known throughout the rest of the year as Steve) stays busy visiting the kids at the hospital and doing community events such as this one that we came to. They are genuinely wonderful people and bring Christmas joy to tons of families every year out of the goodness of their hearts. The stories that Deb tells of their Christmas-ing adventures truly make you want to be a kid again. Check out their website and you'll be amazed at some of the things that they do. They personalize each child's experience that would make any older kid drop their jaw in disbelief that Santa knows their name, their pet's name, and other facts about them before they walk into the room. Very cool. Santa also has another unknown talent of making the BEST barbeque that I have ever eaten. At our staff's summer party for the past few years, Santa Steve has brought the pig! He smokes it at his house and brings trays of delicious southern barbeque for our staff to enjoy. How awesome is that?!

Back to our visit. It was set up in a private room at Deb and Steve's church in Hillsborough. Santa knew Lucas by name before we even walked in the room (thanks to Deb, modern technology, and an invisible ear piece.) Brandon, Lucas, and I walked slowly up to Santa. Now Lucas doesn't know a stranger. But this big man in a red suit made Lucas verrrry cautious. He just looked at him, then looked at me, then looked back at Santa. We just stood their for a while and talked, then I put Lucas on Santa's lap. His first response was to try to escape:

But after Santa talked to him and we reassured him, Lucas just turned and stared at him.

He never cracked a smile. He just studied the jolly old man and stayed cautious and serious.

This was about as close to a smile as we got, even with us jumping up and down and acting like fools to try to get our usually smiley baby to crack a grin: