Santa, the real Santa

Those of you that know me, know that I love Santa...the real Santa...he lives at Phipps Plaza from mid November through Christmas Eve. Now, growing up, he lived at Perimeter Mall and then moved to Phipps years later. We would get all dressed up and go to the mall and stand in line for HOURS to see Santa. Hours! Then he moved to Phipps and I seem to remember getting a number and then you'd come back when it was time for your number to be called. Still waited in line though. It was a Justice family tradition to go see Santa and ride The Pink Pig. It was a day that I looked most forward to growing up and a day that holds some of my fondest childhood memories. When I had Ethan, I was thrilled that I would get to take him to see the same Santa that I had grown up seeing myself. You don't stand in line anymore, this year you called to make an appointment. It literally took me 3 hours to get through - and that was using 4 different phones. I was that serious about making sure Ethan saw my Santa, the real Santa. As I put Ethan on his lap, I hugged his neck and I know he knew who I was. He may not have remembered my name, but I know he knew me. He just had that twinkle in his eyes. Even when I went to pick up Ethan's pictures, he made eye contact with me and gave me that same twinkle, smiled and waved at me. It thrilled me! Ethan was able to see my Santa the first year - that next March he died. I was crushed! The article about Santa Ray is in Ethan's baby book. Seriously....like I said, if you know me you know how magical I thought this Santa was. His best friend replaced him as the famous Santa. He's good, but not as good as my Santa. Now I go online in October at midnight to get the coveted appointment. Now we make our appointment with Melanie and her girls. It's become our tradition to do this and as long as I'm able, I will continue to bring my kids to go to Santa. I hope that when they are 32, they look at Santa the way I do and see the magic! I believe in the magic!

Merry Christmas!!!