Spoiler Alert: I'm Santa Claus

So Val and I decided to stay in Brooklyn for Christmas for a myriad of reasons.

1. I didn't know when I was getting done with work.
2. Flights were expensive.
3. Valerie is wanted in most states outside of New York.

So we'd never spent Christmas by ourselves and we weren't really sure how it would go. Here's the possible scenarios we discussed.

A) Valerie and I would be inspired to establish new Christmas traditions that would someday be cherished and practiced by generations of our progeny. These would include the Eggnog Chug, the post Eggnog Chug Foot Race, the post Foot Race Vomit Contest, the post Vomit Contest Watching of Scrooged, the post Watching of Scrooged Nap, the post Nap Kidney Punch Wakeup, etc.

B) Valerie and I would sit bored and talk about how much we missed our families and sigh a lot and read Wuthering Heights to each other over gruel.

C)Valerie and I would challenge each other to an escalating series of dares that would end with both of us in the klink for Christmas.

D)Valerie and I would enjoy a nice relaxing two days, decorate cookies with some good friends, give each other non-disappointing gifts, and watch A Christmas Story three times.

We won't tell which one happened. But here's something else that happened. Friends from the ward, The Phillips, have a six year old daughter who only had one wish: To catch Santa Claus.

And when The Phillips asked around about who should play Santa, someone said, "Ask James. He's jolly."


And so I am. And so I became Santa. Truthfully, I was scared this was going to backfire. That'd I ruin this girl's belief in Santa or scare her and give her years of therapy. Luckily, it all worked out. When I surprised her, her parents came out to see me and took some pictures. This girl is usually a chatterbox, but when she saw me, she was so awestruck it took her a while before she worked up the courage to ask me any questions.
The one question she did want to ask was if I could stay the night. It kind of broke my heart but I told her I had to get back to Mrs. Claus because she worries. She gave me a hug and I ate one of her cookies (which by the way was hard because I got a mouthful of beard with that thing and had to chew around the hair, I don't know how Santa does it). And I have the letter she wrote to me as Santa.

And these are the pictures the Phillips took. I know they appreciated me doing it but I really enjoyed it just as much.