Gotcha! Made you look!

If any impressionable young children are looking in, I'm so sorry. Please don't worry about what I said; I'm sure that the real Santa will be bringing you all the plastic crap your little hearts desire. Now, get lost -- us adults have to talk.

Actually, what I mean to say is that there's no Santa JOB this year, for ME. Although I have *successfully* completed radiation treatment for the cancer that appeared on my right tonsil a couple of days after last Christmas, I have not yet recovered enough energy to work two jobs.

I've become somewhat less well qualified to portray Santa, too: I lost all my facial hair, and it's growing back very thin and splotchy; I'm down 65 pounds, from 245 to 180 (which is actually a good thing); and I had a couple of front teeth pulled, a definite liability for any job that requires you to smile for the camera 15-20 times per hour.

BUT:

My former employers let me suit up late one night and take a few pictures with my grandbaby Avery (affectionately known as "A-Bomb") on the night before her first birthday. The suit hung kinda loose on me, and the white makeup that used to color and thicken my beard now colors the skin you see through my sketchy little whiskers, but we got some nice holiday souvenirs. Here's one:

newly posted member photo

To tell you the truth, what I'll miss most about not having the Santa job this year is that I've lost my all-purpose excuse for not concerning myself with *ANYTHING ELSE* to do with holiday preparations, etc. It was *great* to be so totally busy with a very enjoyable part-time job that I was excused from worry about who gets what present, what to cook, who to call, whatever. I got full credit for exemplifying the Christmas spirit, but I actually did all my exemplifying while on the time clock, and having fun to boot.

Here's hoping I can get back to it next year.