Hello, Santa!

Last night was Kevin's company Christmas party. We arrived around 6pm which gave us a half an hour of schmoozing with his co-workers. Jack was not in the mood to be held, and since there were tons of kids there, I decided to set him down. It was like magic... the moment his toes touched that floor he was gone! Kevin and I chased him through this big ballroom around chairs, under chairs, around the CEO of his company... that kid can move! And every time he passed someone who was born before 1955, they would rub his head. (Back in the "the day" people would rub a little boy's head if he was blond because it meant good luck.) Finally, he stops as soon as he gets to the Christmas tree. But it wasn't the tree that caught his attention, no, it was the two 6 month old baby girls sitting next to it that caught his eye. One was this beautiful petite Asian baby dressed in a cherry dress and red stockings. The other was a little white baby (the two baby girls I later found out were only 2 weeks apart and 10 pounds difference. One was really small and the other was really big!). That little beauty was in this fabulous retroesque dress that I would kill to have in my size. Anyway, Jack stops where they are, and starts to creep closer. Kevin and I go into panic mode because we knew what he was thinking. All the other parents thought Jack was slowly creeping up to them because he was in love... but we knew better. He was hunting them. Ready to pounce and hit them! Just then, Jack grabs a toy! It was like slow motion. The little girl's father says, "Oh how cute! Jack wants to play with them" and Jack swings his arm back like a major league pitcher, aims for the two girls, and throws it. In slow motion, Kevin goes, "Noooooooooooooooo!" and jumps in front of it saving to the two precious angels. One of the little girl's dad goes, "Oh my gosh! I didn't even see that coming." Obviously a new dad. He has no sense of danger when it's coming. Jack sees Kevin and I looking quite unhappy with him and he is off again getting lost under tables.

After dinner, the man in red shows up. I was a little hesitant to let Jack sit on his lap as he reminded me of a whino I once saw on the mean streets of downtown Reno. But, he was a free Santa, and as a Reese, I can't say no to free. Santa had a big bag of gifts for all of the children (actually, all of the parents wrapped up their own gift, put their kid and Santa's name on it, and gave it to Santa's elf prior to the party). Santa pulls out Jack's gift, "Ho! Ho! Ho! Where is little Jack?" Kevin brings Jack up there and leans over to set him down, and then the water works begin. Jack is holding onto Kevin like a spider monkey pleading with him through his tears to not set him down. Yes, even my 16 month old could sense the old whino behind the beard. Kevin takes the present, thanks him kindly, and heads back to our table.

Once we get home, babycakes crashes, and I am in bed (or should I say passed out in front of the fire place) by 8:30pm. We just saw Kevin off to work now, so we are going to work on laundry and possibly make a new batch of brownies, as the other ones we baked too long and were hard as rocks. Yum, I love broken teeth.