After hearing the sad news that our Santa had passed away it reminded me of the title of a movie..The Year Without a Santa Claus. Like so many we had been going to see “The Big Guy” as he was called since my 14 year old son was only 3 months old. Everyone near our hometown goes to see this Santa year after year! And this year some were able to have one last Christmas with him but others are going to have a year without him. We were not able to visit him last year because we were overseas and not able to make it home. But every other Christmas we were there waiting in line to see “The Big Guy”!
One Christmas Brandon was deployed to Afghanistan and it was the first Christmas he was going to have to miss with the boys. We were all sad that he wasn’t going to be home. We went to visit our Santa like we always did and a few days later I got a call that I had won a raffle and that Santa was going to come to my house to visit my boys. I didn’t even know I had been entered into a raffle so I was kind of confused. It turns out that everyone that visited Santa that year was entered into a drawing. I was so excited once I finally figured out what I had won. I explained to them that we would have to do it at my mother in law’s house and that this was perfect because my husband was deployed and it might cheer my boys up! We got all the cousins together and Santa came to visit just a few days before Christmas! It was so amazing and magical. He was so kind and talked to all the kids, ate cookies with them, and read The Night Before Christmas to them. I was just so thankful for everything he did for my boys and family. We got to know him that night and I explained that Brandon was gone to Afghanistan, and he explained that he was a veteran too! Everyone had an amazing evening and it’s something my boys will never forget.
The next Christmas we went to see Santa again and this time we were able to introduce Brandon to him. Every Christmas we went to see him he remembered my boys and family and he would spend lots of time talking to the boys and seeing how they were doing! We are going to truly miss our Santa!!
Please excuse the boys without their shirts on…they had been playing before Santa arrived and had gotten hot..lol! Thank you to my sister in law, Cindi, for all these beautiful pictures! I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas filled with lots of joy and happiness!!