It's that time again...Christmas and the rest of what goes along with the holiday season.  A time for giving, a time for sharing...

For a few years I ran an afterschool program.  Each year at Christmas, our kids put on an Open House where each grade would do some sort of skit, or sing songs, or read a Christmas poem. 

Last year, our kids decided to put on THE GRINCH, and it would be a collective effort for all the kids.  It turned out pretty good, and the parents loved it.  At the end of the show, I would always stand upon the stage with a walkie-talkie, and when Santa was ready to visit, he had a walkie-talkie as well.  He would enter to cheers from the kids, and they'd be provided with a small bag full of items from candy to stickers, to school supplies.

At the the end of last year's performance, the staff decided after cleaning up that we would all go to dinner at Ruby Tuesday's.   One of my staff played Santa, and it was hilarious.  The kids knew it was him, but he played it up well.  After we were done, he had asked if he could wear the Santa suit to a Weight Watcher's meeting before he returned it to me and joined us for dinner.  I told him that would be fine.

After a good bit of time, I finally called him to find out where he was and if he was joining us for dinner.  He said he was in the parking lot of Ruby Tuesday's.  He came in and said he couldn't stay for dinner, but he wanted to give me the suit.  I told him where I was parked, and he said he'd get the suit.

I thought he was going to drive over to where I was.  I was mistaken.

As I saw him coming towards me with the Santa suit, not even in a plastic bag, a family was entering the restaurant with a few young children.  As the children looked with at him carrying the suit with curiosity, his wise-cracking jokester self came out...

They kids looked at him, and he simply said "I hit the guy with my car."

I hope those kids aren't too scarred the rest of their lives.