Thank You Homeless Santa!

The year 2007 was a really bad year for our family. We spent most of our Holiday season dealing with life and death, illness and home health care. It was so overwhelming that we were at risk of not having Christmas at all. And it broke my heart to think that my kids, especially my 2 year old, was not going to have Christmas. At the last minute we pulled together a tree, a few presents and some lights on the porch but we didn’t make it to see Santa that year. It was okay by us, the girls were old enough to understand that we couldn’t make the annual trip to Disneyland and visit Santa in the log cabin. But my Boy was too young to fully understand why Christmas had taken such a downgrade. Christmas Day was the first chance we had to get out and see the lighted wonders of the season, hear the music in the streets and enjoy the cheerful people celebrating time with family, so we wanted to get out and get some fresh air, we hit Seaport Village in San Diego. As we were strolling around, who did we see?! HOMELESS SANTA!!! This man was awesome, he had fewer teeth than my two year old, missing fingers and the brightest suit on the block. My son immediately ran up to him and gave him a hug, and Christmas Magic allowed him to overlook Santa’s “imperfections,”  my daughter slipped him a few bucks and my Boy got his picture taken with Santa. What a great Christmas outing! We don’t have to have Santa to have Christmas, but it was an unexpected bonus after a rough couple of months. THANK YOU HOMELESS SANTA!