I Believe

We took the boys to Opryland Hotel to see the Christmas decorations. This hotel is pretty unbelieveable (there is an indoor river full of fish and drifting past multiple indoor waterfalls, with boat rides for visitors, for instance) on any given day, but with 2 million lights and all decked out for Christmas it's a sight to behold.

Mr. P said "Oh, we can't go out there! The traffic! The line to see Santa! For the sake of all that's Merry and Elfin you can't be serious!"

I said it would be fine, on a Sunday afternoon, 10 days before Christmas. Don't worry.

He bought it. Can you believe that?

We walked in and the first thing we stumbled upon was SANTA! I hopped on line with the boys.

Here's the thing about the line.

There wasn't one.

There were 2 kids ahead of us. That's it. Two.

But the really amazing part: it was the real Santa.

Santa was real in every way: straight from the North Pole, directly descended from St. Nicolas. The beard, the voice, the suit, the twinkly blue eyes! And the way he dealt with the children. He talked to them, asked questions, hugged them, laughed, and looked them in the eye. He spent at least 5 minutes with each child. He completely engaged and he enjoyed it. Santa was having FUN!

Honey Bear cried. I went to pick him back up and Santa said, "If you just let me hold him for a few minutes he'll stop. He's OK."

What? Don't Santas usually want to toss the crying babies back to Mom asap?

But this was the Real Santa.

I backed up and Bear quit for a second and then started again. I went to get him. "It's OK," said Santa, "he'll be fine." Santa contined to talk to Shark Boy.

I sat on the little train next to Santa. Bear, a little calmer but not happy, looked at me as if to say, "Help! Get me!" We got a picture though without his face all screwed up.

I had to take a picture of the picture so it's blurry, but I know you all want to see the real Santa. I'm serious. He was Santa!

Here are some pictures of Opryland Hotel at Christmas.

Merry Christmas to all of you! I hope it's magical!