Let me start by saying, this is the BEST Santa picture the kids have ever taken. Were the planets aligned? Could I have built up enough driving karma? Did a seismic shift occur and my kids enter a parallel universe where all children behave while sitting on Santa's lap?It started like any other trip to see the big man. On the fly. We originally went to mail our letters to Santa using Macy's "Believe-o-meter" mailbox. Since, I had driven through major traffic at 4:30 to get to the mall AND all three of them didn't look too horrible, I decided, what the hey -- we'll go see Santa. Turns out it was a GREAT decision. No line. No crowd. Perfect.
The little "helper" comes up to us to fill out the card for the photo. I tell her, "Look. I don't care what it looks like. I'm going to buy it. Whatever they are doing, screaming, crying, staring off into space, it doesn't matter. I'm not going for family heirloom, here." She stares at me blankly, shrugs and walks away.
Hays runs up to Santa, "HI SANTA!! I LOVE YOU!!!". She rummages through his giant bag on the ground and pull out a coloring book. Jack shuffles along, trying to look out for any sightings of school friends. Hays keeps smiling and saying, "It's Santa! Santa's coming." I walk up with Madden who has a death grip on my fingers. I say, "Santa, this is Madden and she normally hasn't done well when we get our picture taken with you." Santa smiled, bends down and says, "What's this?" He looks right into her eyes and says, "She knows Santa loves her." And keeps looking right into her eyes until she touches his cheek. From THAT moment on, she was hooked. She sat in his lap. Took the sucker he gave her. And all three of them looked at the camera.
I was in shock. Muttering something along the line of, "Thank you so much Santa. Madden has autism and I really never know how things are gonna go, but that was so amazing,-- blah, blah, blah." He hugged the two girls and shook Jack's hand. As Jack was walking away, he says, "You know Jack, you are an excellent influence on your little sisters. I can see why you made the Nice List this year." Can you believe that Santa?! I love him.
Madden waved and said "bye-bye", Hays blew kisses, kisses and more kisses and Jack was walking just a tad taller.
1 comment:
This post is just beautiful. Don't know how I missed it before. Or maybe I started to read it and got distracted. Either way, it should be in your memoirs. The ones I am making you write. If you don't write them I'm afraid I will have to make a movie based on your life. Your choice.
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