A Visit from Santa Claus in San Francisco
Santa Claus came to the living room this afternoon. He apparently keeps a San Francisco address in December — the Fairmont's Santa Suite up on Nob Hill, 950 Mason Street, his home away from the North Pole — so the trip over was presumably short for him.
Four kids, ages staggered from barely-walking to preschool. The one in the black tricorn hat went up first and spent the whole turn on Santa's knee gripping a recorder like it might get confiscated, then came away with a plastic candy cane full of candy and held it up to one eye like a spyglass. The kid in the purple flowered dress climbed up next with a pink pony in hand and kept sneaking sideways looks at the beard instead of facing forward.
Getting all four of them arranged in front of the tree at once took a few tries. Nobody looked the same direction at the same time, and the littlest one mostly wanted back down. Santa's bag emptied out, the recorder got played more than anyone wanted, and he was gone before the sugar hit.
