We Met Santa at Red Lobster
Last night we went to Red Lobster with my in-laws. We noticed that Hudson kept glancing over to the same table. The man he was looking at, if he wasn't playing Santa at the mall already, really needed to consider a career change. He had white hair, a white beard, was wearing a red thermal shirt, and had a belly that shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly. Really, I can't speak to the jiggliess-ness (yeah, it's a word) of his belly as he was sitting at a booth but if this man was something like an accountant I would be really disappointed.
We reminded him it was not polite to stare. When he asked questions we suggested that maybe it was his brother. Or maybe it was his cousin that kind of went of the deep end and now lives in a bunker with 20 cats and no one sees him except at the annual family reunion where Santa forces them all to wear cheesy shirts that say "The Clauses Have Come To Town".
"Santa" noticed Hudson staring and gave him a friendly smile. We saw him wave a waitress over. Shortly after the same waitress came over to our table to chat with the kids. "What's your name?" she asked Kenzie. We told her and then she asked her, "And who's this?"
"Dat Hudson. Dat my big bruder," answered Kenzie.
She chatted with the kids some more and then went back to work.
Fast forward about 5 minutes and "Santa" was at our table.
"Hello, Hudson and MacKenzie!" Ok, so he didn't quite get her name right, but you gotta admit that was pretty clever. Hudson just stared, barely able to get a word out.
"You guys have been very good. I'll see you at Christmas, ok?" he said and handed them each a business card with a picture of Santa that read, "You have just met Santa. You must have been good this year" and went on to another table with children.
Now, most kids would have been over the moon. They would have been giddy, and talking about telling all their friends, and updating their Facebook statuses. Not Hudson. There's a reason we call him The Little Professor.
"Where's his sleigh?"
We all looked at him.
"I only saw cars in the parking lot. Where's his sleigh?"
"It's probably on the roof don't you think?" I answered.
"Why isn't he at the North Pole?"
"Well, Santa is very busy. He needs a vacation sometimes too, just like you take vacations from school," answered my mother-in-law.
"Why isn't he wearing his suit?" This kid is relentless.
"The suit is his work clothes. He doesn't wear it if he's on vacation," answered my husband.
Meanwhile, Kenzie was tearing her card in half and dipping it in ketchup.
I'm not sure how much longer the Santa thing is going to last with Hudson. I think now that he's time to think about it he really is excited that he met Santa last night. I'm sure it's just a matter of time before he updates his Facebook status to "Who's got two thumbs and just met Santa at Red Lobster?" along with a iPhone picture of himself in the mirror. Kenzie, however, will be busy dipping last years Christmas presents in ketchup.
Kari April 21, 2013 at 7:06 PM
What a great story! Stopping by from the Oklahoma Women Bloggers linkup!
Aw that's so cute and super sweet of that guy.
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