#2,152 Santa + Football. Laurel Mercantile

Ben was up bright and early this morning turning his beard Santa white grey to shoot a Christmas commercial for our little hometown mall because the cable advertising rep for our area, Anna, is a dear friend and promised free Chic-Fil-A, and also, Ben got to wear a brand new super nice Santa suit which is like, a childhood dream.

I got there as they were wrapping up and couldn’t believe how transforming that red velvet suit is. He didn’t look or seem to be my Ben, but someone else. The little children in the mall were watching him in total, precious wonderment, both happy and afraid to talk to Santa.

This little boy wants an Iron Man toy for Christmas.

And while we were waiting for our lunch order we discovered a big class of 1st-3rd graders on a field trip who were electrified at the sight of Santa, but there was this one precious little girl who was so sweetly, quietly calling “Santa?” and he couldn’t wait to give her his full attention. It made all us spectators a little teary-eyed.

We bumped into our mayor:

And finally, and a little reluctantly, he returned the suit and was back to his normal plaid and work boots. We went to the first round of playoffs for Laurel High School’s 2014 state championship football team tonight with all of our friends and had a mighty big time even with temperatures dipping down to the low 40s, which is the only way to enjoy football if you ask me.

Can’t you just hear this music when you see a picture like this?

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