Carne Asada BBQ day.

My day started out in a very poor way. I had noticed the last few nights coming home from Plaza Bonita, that the rental car I have been driving did not seem to shift into 3rd gear. I went out of my room this morning and I had a flat tire. So I called Avis and the said a guy would call me back to make arrangements to exchange cars. When the man called he said it would be 2 hours. Well Santa did not have that much time to wait, so he suggested I call the agency in National City and make arrangements for an exchange. I just knew I was going to be running around getting lost. Turned out they were not that far out of the way I just needed to air up a tire. With a gas convenience store next to the motel I was able to get enough air in to make the short trip. They started out giving me a Chevrolet Impala, thought that would be alright, until I went out to put my stuff in it. It had to many stains on the seats front and rear and just did not appear to be a clean interior. I went back into the office and let the young lady know that someone would have to document all the damage in the interior before I took that car. She then offered me a Pontiac Gran Prix with only 4000 miles on it. I said sure wouldn't you know it when the car came around it was snow white. So now Santa is cursing in style.

Santa was able to get to Plaza Bonita in plenty of time and made it to the WOW warmup. Today's standard was number 7. Create a comfortable environment where everyone's opinion is welcomed and respected. So Santa working on his Spanish butchered it I think what I said was something like this career una atmosfera bienvida respectad. Now what I should have said is this. Crear una atmosphera donde las opiniones sean bienvenidas y respetadas. No one needs to get excited about my spanish I did take it right off the standards card.

The rest of the morning was rather uneventful I had maybe 8 visits on the Santa set. Then came time for lunch. As it has been team appreciation week I was invited to participate in all of these events, like build your own ice cream sundae day where the different managers would build you a sundae to each individual request. Belgium waffles were on the schedule yesterday and today was Carne Asada BBQ. For some of my northern friends who are like Santa and have never had it, melt in your mouth thinly sliced steak marinated in special sauce and cooked on a grille. Wrap this is in a tortillia and add things like guacamole, beans, rice or what ever else you wish. Carlos and his crew did a wonderful job of preparing this feast. Now Santa has been trying to be very good with his dieting, but I had never had this before so I knew the dieting was going out the window today.

To go along with the BBQ it was a retirement party for Jim I believe he might have been in charge of engineering. Last year he told me that when I came back this year he would be able to make it snow on the Santa set. I am sure he would not have been able to pull that off but I thought he could sure cool it off on that end of the mall. A lot of employees who had worked at Plaza Bonita in the past came to wish Jim an enjoyable retirement. It appeared to me that once you have been a part of the Plaza Bonita Team you will always be a member of the family. They have told me on several occassions that I am a family.

Food and fellowship was great now Santa heads back to his chair. This needs to be prefaced by the new rule implemented by Cherry Hill Photo they are no longer allowing parents to take their own photos on the set, it seems that some have gotten carried away with this. Oh and now that I have mentioned them I am under contract with Cherry Hill Photo As I approach the set I have 2 young men all dressed up with their ties on and then I recognize mom, it was the mother who had brought her son in two days ago for Santa to scold. I get settled into my chair and the photographer is ready so I wave the boys in. Mom places them on my lap adjusts the ties and shirts and the boys are excited and happy to see Santa everything is ready. Mom now pulls her camera out of her bag and is ready to start taking her own photos, our photographer informed her of the rule about photos. I am sure she had waited for my return from lunch long enough to read the big sign that she had been standing in front of where these rules are posted, she was going to take her own pics and leave. This was very obvious to me when she opted for one 5 x 7 of her children from Cherry Hill. I felt like I had been redeemed, no longer the bad Santa.

We had a total of 68 visits to Santa's lap today for a first week total of 424