Well Christmas has come and gone and we are looking at a brand new year……..but wait there was a lot that happened in Fresno so let’s recap a bit.

Ross was doing his Santa gig at Fashion Fair Mall as usual this year, and when we arrived at the mall the “cave” was ready for him.  We call it the cave as it is really a storage room for all the blueprints of the mall.  They put in a sofa, carpeting, and Ross has hidden a mirror behind some racks of blueprints.  In case you don’t remember the description of the cave…….about 40’ square, concrete floors, very high ceilings, no power (except what is brought in from an outside plug), no running water, and no bathroom.  So the area manager supplies a space heater and we supply the rest.  It can be very cool, especially when changing in 47F weather!!!  Anyway, as we said the room was ready for Ross, complete with a case of water.  We had a meeting with the crew, district manager, and Brett (my employer and area manager).  We had a new set manager, Candice, who is a long-time resident of Fresno and a photographer in her own right.  She turned out to be friendly, supportive, caring, and an all-around great person.  The day before opening the crew was being trained on all equipment – something that was lacking for the last couple of years – and Ross got to have a little bit of time to get to know everyone.  And the meeting with the marketing manager went very well.  Last year she was difficult to deal with, but this year is a breeze.

A few short days after opening the set we had the “Wake Up Santa” breakfast.  Ross has to be ready to go by 6:45AM, get settled in the chair and pretend to be asleep.  Children and their parents are allowed into the mall at 7:30, Mrs. Claus reads a story, and everyone screams Santa’s name until he wakes up and leads everyone in a rousing carol or two!!  Then breakfast and photo op with everyone. 

Anyway, the season was long, tiring, satisfying, and wonderful.  Crew was easy to get along with and we regularly had giggles, laughs, and even a couple of silly season events (where everything is funny and everyone reverts to about 6 years old).  We had 2 marriage proposals, lots and lots of little ones and quite a few older folk.  The youngest this year was 1 week old, the oldest was three off being 100 years old.  We estimate that Santa had about 12000 to 14000 people meet with him.  And this year, instead of candy canes, we gave out a book about Santa saving a circus train that was rolling through the North Pole – we gave out about 8750 of those.  Apparently Mrs. Claus has put everyone on a diet up north, so no sweets for us!!!

A great thing happened about the end of November.  The mall found a vacant store that we could occupy until the end of the season.  And the store was great………lots of room, warm, dry, with electrical plugs ++, and best of all, a working toilet!!!!!  We all loved it!!! 

Santa heard all kinds of wishes…….the usual (dolls, toys, games, electronics) and some unusual (a hamster, a juicer, a unicorn, Rudolf, all the reindeer, a signed picture of Mrs. Claus, snow!, etc.).  He had a gentleman bring in a diamond ring so Santa could sign the proof of authenticity “Santa said you would like this.”  And of course, we had some heart wrenching times…….a mother asking for some help in supplying her son a gift, world peace, a sister to be brought back to life, a father to be re-united with the mother, a return of a soldier overseas, and surprisingly “nothing, thank you”.  The good news was we were first in sales of all the malls Brett has and we made well over our goal this year!!!!  Everyone was happy about that.

While Ross was at the mall, Ed kept himself busy as well – shopping (he can explain about that more), spending time at the gym, walking the dogs, and keeping Santa happy…..or at least out of trouble.

The RV park we stayed at was close to the mall and some of our other haunts, but the Wi-Fi connection was “iffy”.  Sometimes we had raging hot internet connection, other times it was dead.  Ed took to taking his computer to the mall when he dropped me off and then having a coffee at Starbucks while downloading his email.   

Christmas day we had a leisurely breakfast then walked the dogs at Woodward Park (about 300 acres of park, lakes, trails, and lots of smells for the dogs……….Oh, and geese aplenty)!!  Beautiful weather and the dogs got to meet lots of water fowl!!  Boxing day we collected all Santa’s stuff from the mall, and the next day said goodbye to all the crew, the set manager, and Brett.  On Dec 28 Ross had his Santa locks and beard tamed and cut to a reasonable length.  All in all a great year and we will be back in Fresno next year I think!!!

On Dec 29 we packed up the motor home and headed to Bakersfield (a huge 2 hour voyage!).  We had been noticing the little car acting up…..starting well enough, but not wanting to go into an easy idle, then the motor would die.  It intensified when we tried to go out for dinner in Bakersfield to the point we couldn’t even get out of the park.  So spent one whole day having the car towed to a garage, having the mechanics crawling all over it, and finally after close to $100 there could be nothing found wrong.  Ed drove the car back home and we spent another day in Bakersfield!  Out for dinner at our favourite Mexican seafood restaurant  and back to the RV to hook up the car.

Dec 31…….where has the time gone?........Isn’t it June?  Anyway, we are off WAYYYY earlier than we normally travel – hit the highway by 7AM!!  Even beat the sun!!!!  Easy drive on fairly good roads/pavement and made it to Quartzsite by 3PM.  Not bad for 450 miles!!!!  Met up with the other two Santas and one of their wives, had drinks, dinner, and then port with bleu cheese and fresh table grapes.  HAPPY NEW YEAR’S EVERYONE……..MAY 2012 BE BETTER THAN 2011 AND MAY YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT YEAR!!