Kasen and Santa

Today Jeremy, Kasen and I went to the Carlsbad Outlets to do a little last minute shopping. While we were there, we decided to stop in and see Santa. It was about 12:15 and a friend told me that he took a lunch break around 12. We were just going to go get in line and wait. Turns out they cut the line off completely and said "after this person, we aren't taking anymore in line and then santa will go to lunch" so we thought, bummer, but ok we will go to lunch too and then come back.

We chose to go to Dennys. They have lots of breakfast items (eggs) that I can eat. While we were there, they have a claw machine where you can get stuffed animals if the claw goes down and grabs it. Does that make sense? Hopefully you know what I am talking about. Well we told Kasen that if he was a good boy during lunch, I would try and win him a christmas stuffed animal. He wasn't a good boy, but I tried to win him one anyway. In comes "Elfie"....this is the stuffed animal I won for him on my second try. He loved it! I thought, why not try again and get one for the baby. I put in 50 cents more and picked up this cute snowman duo. The claw grabbed it and carried it over to the hole to drop it. I had won again!!!! BUT....right before it got to the hole, it hit another animal and dropped from the claw! I was so upset! I had to win that duo! So I put in another 50 cents and missed. That was all I had and Kasen Jeremy and I left Dennys sad. While Jeremy was getting strapped in, I was watching the other men try at the machine. They stepped to the side and another man tried. IN ONE try he picked up the snowman! I was even more upset! I wish I hadn't even watched! That was supposed to be MY snowman! BUT THEN....I saw the man look out the window, and then come running! He ran out to our car and gave it to us and then went back inside to sit down at this table! OMG! What a good samaritan! That is what the Christmas Season is all about. I couldn't believe it. This selfless truck driver, spent his own money, tried to win, and won and gave it to Kasen! Kasen immediately handed it to me and said "here mommy! It's for the baby!" I don't know if the guy was watching us and saw me make the effort to get that snowman or what, but it was the nicest thing that a stranger has done for me in a LONG time. Tears are not hard to come by these days, so of course I cried. I was so happy and so in awe of this man probably around Jeremy's age, who was a truck driver. A usual at Dennys. What an angel!

So anyway, we drove back to the outlets and learned that Santa had only left 5 minutes prior. Blah! It was 145 and he left at 140. Wouldn't be back til 240. So we couldn't not let Kasen see santa, so we waited in line for an hour before he came back. Once he came back, he spent about 5 minutes with each family, which in turn made us wait about 35 more minutes. It was a long hour and a half, but it was so worth it. The smiles and laughter with Santa were so sweet. Such a tender exchange. Santa was very authentic and asked what Kasen wanted. He told him a Mickey race track, and a robot dinosaur. We took a couple pictures (with my own camera) and got a Santa lollipop and then we were on our way! It was really nice, and Kasen was happy.