What a diffrence a day makes.

Hey there,


As we say, "No two days are the same." and today is no different. We had a 10-hr day and we did 391 pictures. Sorry to say but I have no real numbers for last year for comparison due to the computer at Bass Pro having died last year in the middle of the shift. However, I am happy to tell you that today everything went smoothly, so no jinx from last year. Thank you, Lord.


My gut tells me we did a little better last year, but as I said above we really have no records. Let's call it a wash.


Today had three interesting items happen that kind of sticks out.


First off I saw my buddy Joey who gave Santa a gift last year. I recognised him right away and he was happy I did. He was not bearing gifts for Santa today, but he was happy I remembered. Just so you all know, Joey has a disability but is still a great teenager!


Secondly, a little red-haired girl with Down syndrome is one of my biggest fans! Last year she must have came 20 times to see me. This year I got a little too excited to see her and I ended up scaring her. So after her dad calmed her down, she came back up to Santa and sat in my lap and was so excited she could hardly contain herself. She wrapped her arms around my neck and gave me a kiss. She was just jumping with excitement as she left. It is so amazing to see her excitement.


The last item is that it was Bass Pro's Associate Night. That is a special night employees of Bass Pro and their families can shop after normal hours and get a special discount, and of course get a picture with ME. It was fun to see the employees be more relaxed and with their families. Of course not everybody showed up, but it's their loss not to get a picture with the Talent.


It never ceases to amaze me how wrong our impressions can be. Let me give you an example. You would think the kids would be the ones causing trouble for Santa. Not true, it is the adults and the grandparents. The adults are demanding, lie to your face, and do whatever they want. Oh, and if you attempt to enforce the rules, they get mad and call you names.

Here are the simple rules for your FREE picture. You can have 1 group photo, or one photo of each person. So lets say you have a family of 4. You could have 1 picture of 4, or 4 pictures of 1. It sounds simple because it is. But today a well-dressed family of 6-7 came in right off the bat and paid NO attention to the rules. They wanted each one alone, then just the girls, then just the boys, then by who the daddy's are, then a group shot (I am not joking or exaggerating in the least). I finally said that we are done. If they want any more pictures, they need to take the pictures themselves and Santa will not allow any more than two additional pictures with him. I told the photo people to walk away from the camera.

Well, the lady in the $500 shoes said that's not all the different families, and we need photos for the meema and peepa. I said sorry, you can take pictures elsewhere in the store but not here. She let me have it, and I said "Merry Christmas and remember the real reason for the season." She responded with giving me the bird.

I also had another person come in and say she had 4 kids and she wanted 6 different shots for their different daddys. I explained the rules and she just tossed her arms in the air and said that it would not work. I said you can have 1 of each, but she said that she did not want pictures for herself of some of the kids. It was so sad because I could see the pain in a few of the kids eyes. They were trapped in the middle and they did not ask for this to happen to them.


Well, enough happy thoughts for tonight. Sleep well and I'll be back tomorrow.



Santa