Steering committee to Branson

Well we have been working on gettting presenters for our first ever AORBS convention in Branson, Mo. Last week I needed to get a touchup on my hair so that waste one afternoon. I will be leaving home on Thursday early morning driving to Denver and where I will meet my co-chair then he will drive to Goodland, Ks. The next morning we will be getting up and finishing our trip to Branson. We will be in meetings all weekend to make sure we are prepared for the July convention. We should have 350 to 500 real bearded Santa's there. It should be getting some national media exposure.

We Have Been Busy

It looks like my co-chair and I for the AORBS (amalgamated order of real bearded Santa's) have finally been able to lock down presenters for 24 different workshops for our very first convention. This will be held in Branson, Missouri July 7th through the 9th. It has been interesting talking to all the different Santa's and trying to find out what they are able to present to the others so that we can all work at becoming better Santa's.

Here is a web address for those that might be interested in what will be happening http://www.discoversanta.com/index.htm It will be a lot of fun to get together with what we are anticipating to be 300 to 500 other white bearded gentlemen. I have discovered something rather interesting in working on this committee. A Santa can talk to a child and usually discuss all they need to talk about and get photos taken in 2 to 5 minutes. But when one Santa gets on the phone with another one it usually takes 45 to 90 minutes. That has some explanation as to what I have been doing.

The Santa-America http://www.santa-america.org/ training program that was going to take place in June at Daphne, Alabama has been rescheduled to take place in Branson. It will start 2 days prior to the AORBS convention and some of the workshops will be held to coincide with the convention. All that means is one less trip I will have to make this summer. If I had to make a choice in doing just one though it would be the Santa-America training.

So now the committee members will be getting together in Branson the first week in May to go through all of the different events verify schedules and make contingency plans. It still means I have to do a lot of driving this summer. Going on 2 different trips that will be over 5,000 miles.

I was considering just renting a car for both trips but It looks like for the second trip in July anyway Santa will have a new sleigh. I have been doing some bartering and have managed to come up with a 1986 Chevrolet Celebrity station wagon. It wil be getting a new transmission and then some of the guys in the shop figured that if it was going to be for Santa that it would have to have some custom work done on it. So they have come up with a lot of plans and we will just have to see what happens. I know the first thing they want to do is paint it red and have the out line of a sleigh on the side painted in gold. From there they have even more plans like redoing the interior, special lights and sound etched rear windows and some special graphics. They have told me that they can have it ready for my trip the first of July. Now all I have to do is be patient and wait for them to do the work. If their plan comes together it should be a rather wild ride. It is almost like getting that OVERHAULING thing done on television, this will just take longer. I will try to keep updates on the progress of this project posted on this blog.

I encourage any and all comments. There are still some other items being worked on by some very special elves. As soon as I am given the go ahead I will be letting everyone now what these projects are. I am even more excited about them than the new sleigh

Santa Has Been Busy

There has been quite a few things going on lately. As I had said before I am co-chair of the workshops committee for the First Convention of AORBS (Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santa's) So I have been talking to a lot of other Jolly Old Elfs (JOE'S) Our convention will be in Branson Missouri July 6th through the 9th. We are anticipating 350 to 500 Real Bearded Santa's.
We are having a parade through Branson all Santa's & Mrs. going through town at 7:00a.m. It is that early for 2 reasons if we wait any later Santa's would be dropping like flies in their suits because of the heat. The other is they are looking for the morning news programs to pick it up. That should be quite a site to see all that red and white.

That is going to be a busy week due to Santa-America will be doing their training sessions starting 2 days ahead of the AORBS Convention that way more Santa's will be able to do both.

There are still some other exciting things going on as well. One of which is that this blog could end up being the basis for a book that I have been asked to write. Of course whatever names I use will have to be changed to protect the guilty.

Then I have a new wonderful friend in Arizona that is working on some other things that will enhance my Santa duties. When I can tell everyone about it this will be the first place the news will come out.

People are actually starting to send comments and I am trying to figure out how to get them to come up automatically so that everyone can check them out. So keep those comments coming I enjoy being able to read them.

It has been a long time

I guess it has been a long time since I have posted here. I have been busier than I thought. I had the opportunity to visit my #1 elf at college this last weekend and he has decided that he is not going to major in music education. He put me into shock when he said he wanted to major in Pastoral studies. He feels that he is being called to become a Pastor.

Well I have been working on some other new things and when it is finalized this is where it will be heard first. I am not sure how long it will take though. A lot of what I am working on has to do with this blog though.

Hey Santa Christmas is Over

Today I had the opportunity to visit with my friend Santa Patwho spent his time in Joliet, Illinois While I was having the front end aligned on Mrs. Claus car. We were able to share some our stories from the last season, it should not be surprising that the children up there were not that much different than the ones I found in Southern California.

When the car was done I went over to a trade show, it is mainly for farming but they do have a vendors there showing off their new tools. I was seeing if they had anything new that would make my job of making Santa belt buckles easier.

As I was walking past one of the implement dealers there were some salesmen sitting on some equipment and one of they called out to me, Hey Santa Christmas is over. So I had to ask him "So does that mean that Santa just dies the next day. The look on this guys face was priceless, and then the other guys let him know that I had got him pretty good. That was almost as good as the three little girls from last week.

I am getting my e-bay store up and running again after being on vacation mode. It takes a little time to list the new items and I want to have my Santa Belt buckles up on there within the next couple days. If you go on e-bay I think you can do a store search and the name of mine is pretty easy, I Believe In Santa.

Web Site problems

Well I went to my website this morning and found it to be full of new problems nothing was working right. So it looks like I will have to start from scratch again. I hope to have it all in proper order and working within the week as it takes me awhile to get everythin up and running. I can still get e-mails though.

Mrs. Claus and I are enjoying the empty nest thing but we still miss Shane being here at home. This morning he received his official certificate and ID from The Royal Order of Santa Claus and National Santa Claus registry.

I will let everyone know when I have the website up and running again but I think I will give it a couple of days before I do, just to make sure it is running right.

The Cats out of the bag

I just realized that I have repeated some things on this posting so you can just go down to the new information. It seems that once I put a photo up on this site I am unable to take it off. I think I have been able to edit enough to put the new informaion in Blue on this posting so you can just scroll past the red. As you can see Mrs. Claus was very happy to see Santa get home. Of course we still had a few stops to make before we could go home on Christmas Day. Our first stop was to see my friend Adam my special friend who is pictured here on the right. My first trip to see him was three years ago. Everytime I show up he is just like the first time very excited to see that Santa actually came by his house on Christmas Day just to see him. I felt like this year was special, he was the first one to see Santa in his new suit. The first year I was in the one Mrs. Claus had made for me and last year I went directly from the airport in my red bib overalls. He never cared he just knew it was Santa coming to see Adam.

This is a photo of my good friend JoAnn with Santa. She told me about Adam and I knew I just had to go see him. JoAnn has been the one who gives me the updates on Adam some of his shenanigans and what he has been up to. This year she gave me all the important information then told me he turns 25 this year. He would like to have a college cheerleading team come by and do a cheer for him and maybe sing Happy Birthday. So I guess I will be working on trying to make that happen for him, only because is is a good kid most of the time. Well as all should know by now Santa managed to be going too fast on his way to the next stop. I thought I was going to see my friend John and his inlaws just a courtesy stop no big deal.

What John had not told me was that I would meet a new special friend when I

arrived there. So here is my friend Rusty again one that

was very excited to see me. When we arrived Rusty came out of the garage, and was as surprised to see me as I was to see him. I finally was able to get him to take me in to see John and the rest of his family. John and his father in law own the company that cuts out my buckles for me. Water Extreme Technologies. They did all the artistic metal work at the Great Falls International Airport.

My first week home from Westfields Plaza Bonita I just wanted to catch up on some rest and relaxation. So that was exactly what I did for the next 8 days. Then it was time to help Shane get ready to go off to college. Buying the last minute things that he thought he would need taking all of his suits and sport coats to the dry cleaners and picking them up. Talk about sticker shock that was a huge dry cleaning bill! I was able to get into see Patty at Raz Matazz to have my roots taken care of, so that we could get our family portraits done again as the ones we did before I went to San Diego had a problem seems that Shane's glasses produced large glares so this time we did it without glasses. This bleaching my hair is getting to be some what of a mess my hair is growing too fast. So in order to keep the image of Santa alive all year round which will be required for me to volunteer with Santa_America I will need to get it done at least every eight weeks. Any way we put Shane on Amtrak on Friday January 6th and sent him off to Owatanna, Minnesota. He is starting mid year at Pillsbury Baptist Bible College, he wants to graduate with a degree in Theology as well as music education.

So this last week I have spent on changing over my web hosting company and rebuilding my web site. So now the new one is up and running still needs a little tweaking though. It can be found at http://www.ibelieveinsanta.net. There are links to a biography that I am still working on, as well as a link to this blog. Still under construction are the pages that will have my Santa Belt Buckles listed for sale as well as a photo album so that you won't have to put up with so many photos on this blog.

Now here is where the cat gets out of the bag. Some of my friends know quite a bit of information about me. At Westfields Plaza Bonita one current employee and one former employee had tmi. Too Much Information about Santa. A little hint for those that did not know would be to put it like this Too Information Much. But no one there knew where I lived other than the North Pole some knew that I was known to spend some time in Montana. Now all will know even more information than they should by visiting my new website.

I will try not to let so much time lapse between entries on this blog so that maybe they will not be so long.

Lead Foot Santa

One of the highlights of my visit to Plaza Bonita was Hyundai's Califronia Drive Inn, and yet I knew it was a mistake. Well I got the 3:00 a.m. wake up call tried to gather my wits loaded up my trunks and headed to the airport. I took the rental car back and they took me to the terminal. I thought good I can get checked in throught security and maybe take a nap while I waited for the plane to start boarding. There was no one at the counter so I went to the self service check in and could not get it to work. then I read the screen and it said that it would not be operational until 4:33 a.m. Then this lady comes along and opens them up and says they will not start until 5:00. I was sure security would be holding me up and I would have to make a mad dash for a plane.

As it turned out I was delayed by security seems my suspenders are the culprit. I went up the stairs and was right at my gate. The flight to Denver was peaceful I think there was a short nap. A little over 2 hours layover. The meeting that I was looking forward to did not take place. My flight from Denver to the North Pole was very crowded a jolly old fat man just doesn't fit well in those little airplane seats.

When I got off the plane Mrs. Claus and my number 1 elf were waiting for me with my new suit from Adelles of Hollywood. So I changed into it immediately and we headed off to see Adam on what has become an annual Christmas day visit. He was just as surprised as he has always been. We had a great visit this year I tried not to show how tired I really was. And he introduced me to his new dog, Sunshine who was a bundle of excited fur and did not sit still much. Then Adam had to show me his new recliner and flat screen T.V. of course I already knew about them. Adam Santa & Mrs Claus.

Of course Santa had to try out Adam's new recliner it was the most comfortable seat I have been in in 45 days. So our visit complete with Adam we headed across town to visit with John and his Family. John's Company is the one who cuts out my belt buckles so I can do the finish work on them. This photo of Santa in Adam's chair shows a fair view of one style of buckle.

Now the next information came from a local paper I have tried to edit it to keep some people from knowing exactly where this Santa's North Pole is located. There is one error it says that I was driving 50 miles per hour and when Officer Green came up to the window he told me I was going 40 mph. Another error is where it says I worked as Santa Claus there. What it should have said was that I was Santa Claus there. This is my take on the situation as it happened. I was driving north bound when I noticed the Police car and looked down at my speedometer and knew I was going to fast so I slowed down. Then he turned around coming up behind me with his lights on. I pulled over and he told me I was going 40 mph. He informed me that he was just going to give me a warning, but he needed to see my drivers license so I pulled out my little ID keeper and started to open it up so he could see the regular one. Then I decided it was Christmas and I had my suit on so I should show him my North Pole License. That has usually gotten a chuckle and then I am asked for the real thing. But Officer Green was going right along with it and he called in on his radio, need a 29 check on a license. There was a brief silence then he said it is out of the North Pole, last name of Claus first of Santa, long silence then the dispatcher came on and siad he's not in the system. Officer Green handed me back my I.D. and asked me to slow down and have a Merry Christmas. I thought that it was over. The next evening when the elf came home from work he brought me a copy of this article.

Police give Santa Christmas Gift
Great Falls Police Officer John Green pulled over Santa Claus on Christmas for speeding but declined to write him a ticket.
"Oh, he was jolly," Green said of Claus.
But otherwise, Green discovered that at least two commonly held beliefs about Claus are incorrect.
Claus is widely believed to drive a sleigh and live in the North Pole.
In fact, Green said, Claus drove what appeared to be an Oldsmobile, or a similar mid-size American car. His driver's license showed that he resides in _______.
Sunday afternoon, Green pulled over a car heading north on 38th St. near Schulte's Coffee House. The driver clipped along at 50 miles an hour in a 25 mph zone, he said.
When Green approached the car, he noticed that the driver wore a full beard and a big red shirt.
Green asked for identification, and the driver handed him a driver's license that identified him as Santa Claus.
Claus explained that he was just getting back to _________ from a seven-week stint in San Diego, Green said. (He had worked as Santa Claus there.)
Claus told Green he was "tired," but Claus did not try to talk himself out of a ticket, Green said.
Green wasn't inclined to issue a citation, either.
"I can't give the big man a ticket," he said.
Instead, he issued Claus a verbal warning.
He said that by issuing the warning, he hoped to avoid a lump of coal in his stocking next year.
Sunday, Lt. Tito Rodriguez defended Green's decision to let Claus off with a warning.
Claus might have a valid reason to exceed the speed limit, Rodriguez said.
"Santa's got a lot of ground to cover," he said.
Green, however, said he wasn't likely to write anyone a ticket on Christmas.

So now we start off to visit John's Family again Mrs. Claus had told me it would be all adults so I thought it could be interesting. As we were walking up to the house out of the garage comes Rusty as it turns out Rusty is one of Santa's special friends. He was interesting to say the least, and an unexpected pleasant surprise. We had a fun visit with Rusty.

Now it's time to go to the hospital and see my mother in law. She had broke her hip on Wednesday and the put a pin in it. She was still in a lot of pain and not wanting to listen to any of the Doctors or Nurses, I guess that is the way it gets as you get more mature. By now Santa is totally exhausted ready to go home for a home cooked meal, kick back in my favorite chair and watch all the good Christmas movies that Mrs. Claus had taped for me. So I hope all have had a Merry Christmas and wishing everyone a Happy New Year. I will be making post on here from time to time just not every day for awhile. It should be at least everyweek though.

Wrap up for 2005 season

I know the date is not set at Dec. 24 but this blog puts in the date that you write the blog. So we will go back to Dec. 24th. I think at one point today the line was taking 3 1/2 hours to get to Santa. There were times in the previous 2 days where the line had got to be 2 hours long. I was so greatful for security today or I never would have got a break. It was nice being able to go to their potlock some great food.

The gift package that I received from Plaza Bonita was wonderful I will always cherish the card holder engraved with I BELIEVE on the cover. Mrs. Claus enjoyed her gift as well. especially Santa getting back home. Now I am getting ahead of myself. We had 261 visits on the 24th and 1 dog. That brought the season total to 6,423 and 19 dogs. So over the 42 days there we averaged 152.92857 visits per day. That was 396 hours on the Santa set which amounts to 16.219696 visits per hour. So as an estimated that would come to about 30,000 flashes going off at me. that is guessing only 5 flashes per visit, and I am sure there was more than that.

The most asked gor gift by little girls was a Dora talking Kitchen, for the little boys it was Thomas the train. The bigger kids wanted the previously mentioned high priced items. Two of the best requested gifts in my books was the boy who just wanted his family and friends to have a wonderful Christmas and nothing else. Then the little boy who just wanted a old fashion spinning top.

I was relieved to get back to my motel the people at Holiday Inn Express had treated me so well as good as Westfields Plaza Bonita Team. I filled up the rental car with gas, ordered a Pizza and shared it with Kyle at the front desk. Then finished my packing so I could get to bed early for a 3:00 a.m. wake up call to make my flight. I think it was closer to 11:30 before I got to sleep.

Check back in tommorrow for the trip back to the North Pole, There you will find out about lead foot Santa.

38 hours til Santa arrives back at north pole

It is real close to time to close out this Santa's Christmas season. Yes I said Christmas season not Holiday I am not very politically correct today. I do not do that to offend anyone as I will and do recongize all of the other holidays that are celebrated.

Thank God for the Children they really do make it all worth while. Yesterday and today as well I experienced some of that Holiday spirit the people who have done nothing for the last 40 days and then all of a sudden they have to go do some shopping and while they are at it they will do photos with Santa. That isn't bad but this is one Santa who has no super powers. When I start sitting in the chair at 8:00 in the morning I still need to have lunch and relax for a bit. Then after another 4 hours I would like to take another break have some dinner and relax a bit. Then at 9:00 p.m. I am ready to go home and relax a bit before I try to get some sleep so that I can start the whole thing all over again at 8:00 a.m. The problems the last 2 days is that Parents do not seem to think I should take those breaks or leave at 9:00p.m. Those are the ones that spoil it. And they ones who want to make big issues out of things that should have just been left alone.

This is why I do this Santa stuff after I returned from lunch a little boy who had waited in line between 1 1/2 to 2 hours sat on my lap with his brother and sister they got the photo taken and I asked what they wanted for Christmas. The one boy says he just wants all of his friends and family to have a Merry Christmas. Then a couple of visits later another boy responded to the same question with I really don't want anything. Especially after all the request I received for these items X-Box 360 priced around $450.00 if you could find one. I-Pods at $300.00 PSP's at about $250.00 and cell phones for 8 year olds. That might not have been bad but I could not count the number of children who wanted at least 2 of the above items if not all of them. It sure made me feel for some parents bank accounts. These people sure did some great marketing.

That was so refreshing. today at 2:45 we had our 6,000th person make it to the Santa set. The day ended with a daily total of 339 the third largest day of the season. bring us to 6,162 visits with one more day to go.

Jeff finally got in the spirit even if his hat made him look like a Santa puppy dog. I think the Polar Express finally got him. A big thanks to Jeff for taking the worry off me in regard to Mrs. Claus's rocking horse.

2 Days With 20 Hours Left on the Santa Set

As much fun as it is with the children after being away from home for 42 days I am looking forward to taking a break from all the noise. Spending some quality time with my wife and son and having my dog tell me off for being gone for so long. About my dog Mrs. Claus found him along the road about 9 years ago while we were still dating. She really did not want to keep him but after I saw how he protected her I convinced her it would be the right thing after no one claimed him. Well Cody has become rather spoiled and he really likes to go to the local cafe with me when I go down for coffee. So he jumps in the back of the truck and while I am in the cafe he sits on the roof waiting for me to come out. Well on the occasions that he has been left home for one reason or another, when I return he starts talking to me sounds like scoobey doo. So when I get home from this trip I am sure I will get an earfull about being gone so long then he will let me know about everything that has happened while I was gone.

Some good byes started today first was Lupe from here at the motel she will be going to Mexico with her family for the holidays. Then this afternoon Trish the administrative assistant, said goodbye as she is getting a long weekend off. Jose from building maintenance left this evening for New Mexico to spend time with his family.

I will start adding photos from my visit at Plaza Bonita this year.

The one to the left is my friend Trish

This one above is Sarah Tricia's daughter who is one of my biggest believers

I cannot forget the ladies in the concierge so here
goes the first one now I have done it I think it is Yvonne. She was testing me on Westfield Standards and was one of those who always had a smiling face. She was sweet enough to bake me up a miniature loaf of banana bread that unfortunately got misplaced before I had a chance to try it.It was difficult to get all of these ladies together for one photo they were always so busy helping people at Plaza Bonita and I am sorry I did not get photos of all of them and if I get a name wrong please feel free to correct me by responding in the comments section.



Now we have Yolanda another smiling face who was always happy to see Santa. She fixed me up with the cutest Santa Decoration with candy in it.

Now I will really get in trouble as I have forgot this ones name completely. I do know that her and her sister both work as concierges at Plaza Bonita.

Now I will really get in trouble as I have forgot this ones name. I do know that her sister is also a member of the concierge staff. And they are the ones who suggested that I purchase the frozen dinners at the store rather than having to eat from the food court all the time. That saved me a lot of headaches and dollars. Everyone in the concierge were very good to me. Well I think I will let this one be done and go on to the next one

We are having fun

Mrs. Claus gave me my morning wake up call and told me that her mother had indeed broke her hip and they will be doing surgery on her this morning.

A few blogs back I mention having a lady from the Club Walkers who was 97 years young sit on Santa's lap. well I finally got that picture due to waiting for release. I was told by one of the other club members that she has been a club walker for a long time and just recently slowed down a bit.

When I returned to my motel last night the employee party was still in progress. I had been invited to it earlier but had decided that timing would be tough it was supposed to go from 5 to 7 and I got there at 9:30 so I popped my head in to say hello to everyone. The staff here at Holiday Inn express has done a great job. More of those always friendly faces helping to make me feel at home. So last night we managed to get a few photos of staff sitting on Santa's lap in front of the Christmas Tree. If I get to come back to Plaza Bonita next year I will have a nice comfortable place to stay.

I Have Left out a couple people in my blog

Alright my friend Javier who has far TMI on Santa has felt left out as he has only been mentioned once in this blog so I thought I should fix it promptly. So here it is Javier is the Senior Concierge here at Plaza Bonita, I think he is responsible for all the others that work in the concierge. O. K. for those that live in the midwest it is a fancy word for guest services. For Santa they are just a bunch of neat people who do a lot of different things. But are always quick to say Hello Santa, Good Morning Santa, and then at the end of some long days they will say Good Night Santa. But it is really difficult to get them together for a group photo with Santa. So Javier you and your co harts have been mentioned and to make sure you never feel left out again I will mention you some more. Javier,Javier,Javier,Javier,Javier, JavierJavier, Javier, Javier, Javier, Javier,Javier,Javier,Javier Javier,Javier, Javier Javier Javier Javier Javier. Now I will probably get told I spelled it wrong.

Now then I have not said a great deal about Rhonda, she is the Marketing Director at Plaza Bonita. I have 3 different photos of her and she should probably be thinking about now I hope Santa did not put a bad one in here.I have not seen a great deal of her as she is always busy doing something. I found out today that she does not like to be photographed. I did try to catch her off guard but with this digital stuff there is that slight delay that gives the person enough time to hide. So the first shot I got of her was of her hiding her face, She was then worried that people would see her desk and really find out that she does not have a sick mind. As I am sure most have heard that a clean desk is the sign of a sick mind. So she thought I should take another one I did immediately and her hair was standing out like she was flying away to her next task. I really liked that one, but she will have to keep reading to find out which one I used. The last one she actually posed for and it turned out good especially after I did some editing to it. The Photo will show up eventually in this blog.

Today was not a great day for Santa I wound up taking things far too personal, some stuff that I did not have a great deal of control over, but it will turn out alright.

Lunch was good a couple of people that I have dined with regularly at noon while the news was on. Trish and Jeff. They have made that time of day pleasant for me. And this afternoon Mr. Andy brought me in this really neat batch of cookies in a Jar that his family had made up for the each of the Plaza Bonita team. He gave it to me and said he considered me one of the team. That felt good.

Well the second generation Santa is improving, but as you can see he has my favorite person helping him out. My Mrs. Claus is giving him a little guidance I just realized he does not have his hat on in this photo and he probably does not even realize it. As I was leaving the Santa set this evening Mrs. Claus called me to let me know that she was at the hospital at the North Pole (that would be the far east for Javier) with her mother and that is appears she has broke her hip. I knew there was a good reason for not having Mrs. Claus with me this year.

We did get another pet photo in today a little boy brought in his dog it was either a chi whoa whoa or a miniature doberman, but only he would know for sure.Oh, alright we finally are getting to Rhonda's photo. I just had to go with the one of her with her hair standing straight out.

so now I will find out if she reads the blog or not Gotcha Rhonda

285 visits today for a total of 5515 for the season and 17 dogs

5000 That is Five Thousand

Today at noon just before I went on my lunch break we had our 5000th visitor to see Santa. I would venture a guess that we get to about 6500 by 6:00 Saturday.

At lunch today I was priveledged to have lunch with some special people. Sara, Angelina, and Simean had been building gift boxes all morning but had started watching the Polar Express Movie on dvd at about 11:00, so when I arrived our group had expanded to include Trish, Jeff, and Donna and we all finished watching the movie together. Kevin had made a brief appearance and took this photo for us

After the movie we were discussing the bell and who could really hear it ringing.

Sara got her Bell

My Escorts had decided that if they could walk Santa back to the set they would be the most popular kids around. Oh and they all had bells.

We finished the day with 310 visits bringing us up to 5230 visits so far this season

Little Sisters Make Great Secretaries

This morning started slow but a lot of fun. On two separate visits about 15 minutes apart, a brother and sister were visiting with Santa and when I asked the girls what they wanted they started spouting off all kinds of request. Then I would ask the bigger brothers what they wanted the reply was I don't know for sure. Then their little sisters would say I know what he wants and proceed to tell me they item, the bigger brothers both had said yeah that's what I want.

Before I get into too much trouble I better acknowledge the operations crew these are the guys who have to make sure that all the plumbing electrical and air conditioning is operating properly. They are also involved in making sure the Santa set is working.

Now onto other things. A lady came in this morning with her 3 boys and one of the boys said that mom said I gave her a bell last year and wanted to know if it was true. I was not sure but told him that I had. After the photos and request were done I just had to ask mom if I had. She said yes and that it had become something very special. She has started her own tradition with the bell, when they decorate their tree she puts it toward the top and magically on Christmas morning it has been moved to the bottom. She was so moved by the Polar Express and the bell that I had given her that for family gifts this year she is giving a tin of popcorn with the Polar Express DVD attached.

Well I did manage to get another dog today for a photo with the children. Well it is supposed to be a dog a little bity thing they call a chihuahua. Or as some would pronounce it Chi hooa hooa. The best part was the little boy had to hold the pet.

Today was the busiest yet as far as Santa visits was concerned. 363 visits bring our totals so far to 4,920 with 17 dogs.

Tiger Who?

This last Sunday started out kinda slow then I found out that the Chargers started playing at 10:00a.m. When I went on my lunch break I had the opportunity to watch for about 50 minutes. The highlites for that game should start out have you ever seen so many mistakes. I had to return to the Santa set with about 6 minutes left in the game. Oh well they are not my home team so no big loss. I sure thought the colts were coming back to win, only to have one of the ladies that had been standing in line tell me that the Chargers had won. I guess her telephone updated the scores for her.

This afternoon I had Tiger __ _ _ .................. his last name is that of a famous golfer from late 60's. I asked him if he played golf he said he started when was 5 so then I asked what's your handicap when he said six I laughed and so did his dad.

By dinner time we had right at 200 visits on the set, and I was feeling it so I really was ready to go a little early. When I arrived at the office for put my dinner in the microwave Donna asked if I had seen "THE LETTER" I was not sure so she said she would make me a copy. It was from the National City Adult School the Mommy & Me classes, it was a really neat letter about Santa and Westfield's Plaza Bonita signed by 24 parents. After reading that I was charged and ready to go. Another one of those warm fuzzy things.

We ended the day with 307 visits bringing the number for the season to 4557.

Only 6 days left at Plaza Bonita.

Two Front Teeth

Just an observation but it sure does seem to me like there have been a great deal more children show up this year missing at least one and in most cases both top front teeth. These children really don't want to smile but the parents seems to get a kick out of it when we get them to. It seems none of them know the song All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.

The interesting request was from a girl about 5 or 6 and she said she wanted her family all to be together, and wanted her grandfather home. When I asked that dreaded question where is he? She very matter of factly answered that he was in jail but he did not do anything. I told her that I did not think Santa could help out that situation.

Today I was privelidged to have lunch with my old friend Sara and her 2 cousins Simean and Angelina. Lunch conversation was filled with questions trying to figure out if I was the real Santa. Put me on my toes pretty quick. When it was time for me to go back to the Santa set they wanted to walk back down with me. I thought it was pretty funny when they said that they would be the most popular ones around walking with Santa. Well I would have had a couple photos of all of us sitting together except for the character on the left seems to have a problem with getting a photo framed in and pushing the shutter button without shaking. That should not have been a problem as this camera has an anti shake feature on it. I am REALLY GLAD he doesn't work on the Santa set. Now the photo of this mystery man is one that I took. This next photo is one he took of his own ear, just so you can see some of his work. The photo he took of the children and I was so bad I would not even bother putting it in here. If you look real close at his ear you will be able to verify that he is one of my elves. Not one that makes me very happy as he is in charge of the inside weather conditions at the Santa and it is still not cold enough to compare with the North Pole.

I am about to decide that the biggest problem with children today is actually the parents. When we start getting the number of visits we had today it is difficult to find a slow spot for Santa to take his lunch and dinner breaks, so we have to cut the line off. This involves putting someone working on the set to stand at the back of the line and tell people that Santa will be going to lunch or dinner. This evening we sent out a young lady to do this she is a small girl who is very mild mannered and meek. Well some of the people would not listen to her and wanted to argue with her and got in line anyway, she came back into the set and about half scared said she would not argue with these people that she was not going to get into a fight with them so that Santa could take a break. We finally got the only guy working on the set this year to stand at the end of the line. By the time he managed to get there a few more families were able to get in line. I think it is a poor example to the children if you just bully enough you can get your way. Well so much for the rant. All of that goes away as soon as that first child climbs up onto my lap and looks at me with all the hope in the world.

Today we had 301 visits bringing the total so far to 4251.

This Was a Real Stinker

My friend Nathan was in the mall again today, it was not a problem at all recognizing him, today he was with Dad.

In an earlier post I had mentioned a notebook diary type book that the ladies at the Hallmark store had given me, and that it disappeared the first day. Well today a very special lady handed me a new one saying someone had read the earlier blog. It was recommended that I not leave it lay around though. The purpose behind this book was so that I could keep notes on the daily events in one special place. I sure could not remember most of these things without taking a note at some point to help me remember. I guess I have that old age disease where there are 3 things that you lose but I can't remember any more than there is an old age disease.

I get asked a lot about if the babies wet on me. To the best of my knowledge that has not happened, but with the newer diapers that are supposed to be so great how would you know. I have a few babies that while we were taking photos I was sure that they were loading up their diapers or at the very least a little gas. Today though was little different and I am sure very embarrassing for a young man of about 5 or 6. He climbed up and was sitting on one knee and his mom was sitting on the other, just as we were about to take photos and say smile say cheese the young fella had a gas attack. He let loose of one that was very loud and vibrated my leg pretty good, I was hoping it was just gas and the photographer said say cheese I just could not help it but this jolly old fat man started laughing pretty hard. The young man had a tough time smiling, and now that I look back on it mom probably thought I was the perpetrator. It was just one of those times when you are not real sure why you are doing this Santa thing, and I got a laugh out of it even if no one else did.

Today was a fairly busy day I had 237 visits today bringing the total to 3950 My guess when the day started was that we would reach 4500 by closing on Sunday

The Countdown 9 days Until My Big Night

Well let me start with some photos of the newest of Santa's helpers. Shane. The first one is of him with a long time Santa visitor from the first visit she was puzzled about the true identity of Santa. Then a couple years ago she and Mrs. Claus were working together at a catering event, and it hit her who Santa and Mrs. Claus were. She figured out the identity of this helper a lot quicker though, and she has been sworn to secrecy. The second photo of Shane is him getting ready to leave for his first appearance. And the last one he is handing out a few treats to the elementary school students at the North Pole.

Now for events at Plaza Bonita. This morning Santa made an appearance at the Club Walkers annual Christmas breakfast. I was asked how many had sat on my lap so far this year and that number as of this morning was 3576. We added another 3 right away by random drawing. Then I asked who the oldest Club Walker was and found a lady who is 97 years young so she sat on Santa's lap. So now I can say I have had them from 2 days old all the way up to 97, I did remind them that they are never too old to sit on Santa's lap for a visit to make their Christmas request.

Then it was on to WOW warm up. Where Santa was invited to Outback for Plaza Bonita's Employee appreciation dinner. Where I added 2 more to those that sat on Santa's lap and someone has photos of this one as well. I had Andy the General Manager and his assistant Kevin. I sure was glad we did not do them at the same time, even though Santa could have handled it easily. Once again Plaza Bonita went out of their way to make Santa feel like he really does have a second home.

Things are getting busy enough here that Santa will be escorted to his breaks by the wonderful security staff at Plaza Bonita.
Here a just a few of that team on picture day as the photographer and I were trying to get Percy into the right position for the photo. So today's salute will go out to Security.

These guys are probably going to have their hands full making sure that Santa gets to take his breaks without getting mobbed along the way. So Thanks for going the extra mile for Santa.

Well the memorable item of the day was behind the Santa set as a young man came charging through to say Hi to Santa, As I escorted him back to the lady I thought was his mom. She informed me that she was really step mom. After our brief private conversation Santa she decided that the step mom would leave her vocabulary and she would just be Mom. The other item of the day was when a mother told me this evening that she had brought her first son to see me Santa last year at Plaza Bonita and had decided she would never take her children any place else and tonight there was two sons. These are the things that make me want to come back to Plaza Bonita for a long time.

Todays visits came to 137 which brings the total to date this year to 3713

Don't Let Santa Get Sick

It really doesn't get much better than today. The way this day went really helped to remind me why I am Santa. One on my first visits today was from a friend from last year, Nathan he probably made it to see Santa at least 12 times last year. He would just come walking in to remind me that he wanted Buzz Liteyear, and he wanted to make sure that I did not forget him. Today was his first time in this year and I had not forgot him, only now he wants Buzz pajamas.

Now the photo above Jacob and Joshua, they had been in a couple weeks ago and had there photos taken. I had been able to remember that part. Jacob wanted spiderman stuff and Joshua wants batman stuff. Well they came into remind me of this today. Except that Joshua was just hanging around the front of the set and when I asked mom what was wrong the reply was priceless. Seems Joshua has caught a bit of a cold and he told mom that he did not want to get too close to Santa because he knew he was going to be busy and did not want him to get sick! I asked him to come in a little closer so we could get this photo. Joshua is in the orange and grey shirt and as soon as we took the picture he moved back out of the way. I really did want to just scoop him up and give him a big hug. But realizing now I only have 10 days left on the set I figured. I would let him keep his distance so that I don't get sick. Not many children will consider that type of thing.

Santa get a lot of children in daily with a variety of names however today seemed rather strange, before lucnh I had 4 different Nathan's in and 3 different Joshua's.

Then I had Ivan and Issac in this afternoon, Issac was not very cooperative he would not raise his head up to look at the camera or Santa and smiling about anything was not going to happen, even with all the usual bribes that usually work on 3 year olds. After what seemed like hours and was probably only 20 minutes 5 year old Ivan informed Santa that Issac had a girlfriend on TV. Now Issac perked right up and the exchange between the two brothers was great. We were finally able to get a photo with Issac smiling then I was able to find out that the girlfriend of whichever brother was a little girl in a pampers commercial. It was just hard to believe that one.

Now this evening was really good when I got word of a second generation Santa in my home at the North Pole. I have a 19 year old son who will be going to college in January and he was talked into putting on the Red suit to take Santa's place at some of the functions I used to do before I wound up coming to Plaza Bonita. Well tonight he did it for the first time, he went to the local elementary school Christmas program and did Santa for those Children. Mrs. Claus gave me the report and sent me a photo. He still needs some work on a few items, first of all I was told he had a really weak Ho Ho Ho that went more like hohohohohoho pretty soft and way to many. Then Mrs. Claus said he just doesn't have the girth that a Santa really needs even with padding. Evidently he did not take enough time to prepare as well, had a nice white beard and wig, but it just doesn't work with real dark brown eyebrows. Today though my Hat is off to Shane for his first try at imitating his dad, and good luck to him in the events he still has to cover in the next 10 days.

Overall today was a fun day on the Santa set, the way it is suppossed to be the children and parents were all having a good time, except for one incident where a mother rather pushed her son up through the line then managed to interrupt another family that was deciding which photos they wanted. I just thought she was being very very rude, but Santa is not the bad guy in these situations and then I found out the woman managed to get her photos without paying for them she actually just walked off with them. Oh well it takes all kinds to make the world go round.

Today we only had 83 visits bringing the total for the season to 3498.

No post from yesterday the only big event was the rubber chicken and cow that showed up a day late for Santa Paws.

I am looking for an e-mail of a photo so that I can let everyone in on the cow and the chicken that are being held for ransom from an instuctor in the military. Seems this rubber chicken and cow have been all ove the world with photos being sent to the instructor every week showing them in a different place. So yesterday they wound up on Santa's lap. more information on this will follow I hope.