The real Santa Claus

My Beloved and I went out to do some Christmas shopping at our local mall yesterday and that's where we saw him - the real Santa Claus.

I've been successfully doing most of my shopping online and in the big box stores, so I haven't been in a mall since the Santas began to take up residence a few weeks ago. In fact, I forgot all about the possibility of running into the man in red yesterday until we were descending the escalator right beside the big guy's castle.

Admittedly, I caught my breath and had the incredible urge to flee when I caught site of the jingle bell-bearing elf with the camera and realized what we'd stumbled upon, but I didn't. I sucked it up and even had a peek at Santa on my way by.

I'm not kidding, I think it really WAS Santa Claus. Knowing that this is where we would have brought Thomas for his very first pictures with Santa, I was hoping for a crappy imitation - a young guy with fake fat and pathetic store-bought whiskers - but this guy was the real deal. His beard was home-grown and totally white, and he bowl full of jelly belly on him looked pretty real too. I commend this guy for being as authentic as he possibly could - I was mesmerized.

Yes, I'm a 35-year old, world-weary woman who was completely mesmerized by a mall Santa Claus.

I have no idea why, but the fact that he looked so real was kind of comforting. Maybe it restored some of the Christmas magic I've lost and have been looking so hard to find. I don't know. I do hope he plans to return next year just in case we have a new little someone to sit in his lap.

But even if we don't, I kind of hope I'll see him again next year anyway.