God Moment...with Santa!

The day after Thanksgiving, Rob & his mom & I took T downtown to the lighting of the holiday tree and all the lights on the square. I love this part of living in Small College Town (there really is a town square with a courthouse in the middle! How Americana can you get? I love it!) We all had a lovely time, T included. He did very well with the crowds and the cheering, and especially liked seeing the tree inside the courthouse all lit up and sparkle-y. Lots of jumping and vocalizing over that!

Pictures from the weekend, if you'd like to see more (pictures courtesy of Rob's mom - thank you!) http://picasaweb.google.com/chesterley/Thanx2006

Next we tried to go see another indoor display, but the place was jammed because SANTA had arrived. No way would we be able to wait in that crowd. So we went back the next day, not thinking that we'd visit Santa - just to see the winter wonderland set up inside.

But sure enough, there he was, with no crowds around him: Santa himself, just waiting for a little one to stop by. I really didn't know what T would think of Santa, but lo and behold, there he was, walking right up to Santa's little gazebo as if this were standard practice.

This was the perfect Santa. Not too loud or boisterous, just really kind and patient and lovely. I told T to say "Hi Santa" and he did - both words! Usually we have to prompt both words, i.e. Mom: "Say 'hi Santa'"; T: "Hi"; Mom: "Santa"; T: "Santa." Santa had jingle bell bracelets on which T loved, and before long, he was snuggling up to Santa like an old friend (with occasional breaks to jump around and look at the lights.) Next thing I know, Santa says, "Let's get a picture. This one's on me." And Thomas leans right into him, puts his head on his shoulder, and voila, we have a picture with Santa. After some stunned protesting against the free picture, Santa said "I do this for my special kids" with a smile in his eye.

I think it was about 10 minutes before I could even think of speaking again without sobbing over this small act of kindness on his part - and over T's wonderful moment. Thank you, Santa - for this God moment.