It's Santa!

Yup, its another far overdue Christmas posting :) We arrived back in the US on the 20th and spent a day or two in IL with Jeff's family. We then headed up to Milwaukee to spend time with my family. Every year my Aunt has a Caroling Party on December 23rd, and since we were home we were really excited to get to attend. It's a fairly large party, and there are always plenty of little kids anxiously awaiting Santa's appearance. Santa must have the date on his calendar, because he manages to show up every year. Unfortunately this year bad weather prevented Santa from making the trip. He was kind enough to call my Aunt and let her know he wouldn't be there. He didn't want to disappoint the children, so he told my Aunt that a Santa suit and some candy canes would be waiting in her laundry room. He had scoured his naughty and nice list and determined that Jeff was the perfect candidate to fill in for him. Within five minutes of arriving at the party my Aunt informed Jeff of Santa's wishes, and Jeff was "thrilled" to fill in.


Now it takes a lot of courage to play Santa, so my very generous cousins made sure that Jeff had all of the "liquid courage" he needed for his big performance. Apparently Santa has called and cancelled before, and my male cousins have all been on the nice list, so they have all filled in before. They gladly introduced Jeff to their friend Jack Daniels, who helped him get ready.


We all know Santa is a big jolly fellow. Jeff unfortunately is not, so we had to find some pillows to help him fill out the suit. Our first pillow wasn't quite the right fit. He looked more like Santa-Bob Square pants.


With help from Jack Daniels, my dad, my uncle, and two of my cousins, we were able to figure out the suit. Since Jeff was Santa, I guess that made me Mrs. Claus, so of course I helped get him dressed.


Once he was ready, he came through the front door for his big performance. He was a little nervous, but he handed out candy canes like a pro!

The show could have lasted all night, but my adorable cousin Margaret (who was the flower girl at our wedding) shouted out "You look like Jeff." Not wanting to betray Santa's trust in him, Jeff high-tailed it out of there and was back at the party within minutes. Though he was nervous I think he had a great time. Plus, he must have ensured his spot on the nice list for a few more years to come!