The Santa outfit was inexplicably lacking a beard. A quick call on the local Web for help brought this offer from Matthew Tudor-Jackson up the street (left).

My first reaction was that this was something from a run amuck costume show for Louis XIV. On further consult with the fashionistas of BeLo3rd it was determined to be BeLo3rd!

So, I was ready for my outing as Santa for Winter Walk, December 3rd.

I dropped the big wig and just went with the ZZ Top length mustache beard combo.

You can see more pictures of this at the Davis Orton Gallery news page.

I was very busy with lots of little kids and not a few babies for three hours. I was amazed that the Santa myth continues merrily along despite the enormous seemingly every larger maw of commerce.

I discovered that kids in the 3 to 4 yr range know who Santa is but don’t know yet that they are supposed to tell Santa what they want for Christmas. I stopped asking and quickly moved the conversation to the imminent arrival of a candy cane. I guess that 3 and 4 yr olds are a blind spot in my life’s experiences.

7 to 10 yr olds wanted lots of electronic games and Ipod Touches (very specific about those). 11 to 12 yr olds wanted a phone. I foolishly asked the first few if they wanted a cellphone? They looked at me quizzically until I realized that they did not know that phones used to have wires coming out of them. What most surprised me is the persistence of some old toys. A significant number of 4 to 6 yr old girls asked for Barbie dolls and accessories. Only one girl requested an American Girl doll.  Their male counterparts asked for trains. Bicycles and scooters are also still popular.

One girl, age 12, (I asked each for their name and age) told me that she wanted a Merry Christmas for her family. I asked how many were in her family, “Two, Five, how many?” She thought for a moment and said “Forty”. “Oh, a merry Christmas for the extended family?” “Of course.” she replied.

Ultimately we got to the game, mostly for free due to Meredith’s teacher’s badge and old fart status for some who don’t want to be identified as such except in ticket lines.

It sort of looked like football. But the fact of the matter is revealed by the score at halftime. The game closed out at 35 – 13. GL High School had a dreadful 0 – 9 season. Maybe this is another high school coach headed for the peewee league.

And, we were deterred further from lolly gagging around by the cold wind and snow flurries. Anyway, we had heard enough of the disgusting fawning and groveling by students (Meredith insists that there was no groveling) at the site of “Oh, Dr. Morgan!!”.

Time to go home.

Turkey day was capped off by a quite traditional fare wonderfully commanded by Meredith. This year, because there were no additional guests we ate “buffet style” in the kitchen, thus avoiding the arduous task of clear the rubble from the dining room table.The only innovation to the fare was Ed’s roasted Brussels sprouts and radishes. Of course, Mr. Wonderful recreated his all-American dish of sweet potatoes covered with marshmallows – a particular favorite of Parker.

You’re probably are wondering about the feline story. Well, after we stuffed ourselves we had the entertainment of watching Tigerr, one of the resident cats eye the turkey leftovers and then make a leap for it.

So, in one thoughtless moment, without even acknowledgment that I had served as chef de lobsters for over a decade, and leaving me bereft of any function other than just being Mr. Wonderful, I had been relegated to the dust bin, made redundant, generally caste off.

Well, I have thought further about how to achieve revenge next year….. just wait.

He claims to be the web author of The 12534. But how are we to know that this is true? The only bit of wit that passed his lips was a retort on spying our platter of ginger snaps, “Oh, I can’t eat any of those, that would be canibalism.”

We were lucky enough to get Mr. Ginger Bread Man to pose with Ms. Wonderful.

Mr. Wonderful’s World contains occasional work by Mr. Wonderful himself.

Send a note to Mr. Wonderful at MrWonderful@markorton.com

This is a photo of me in 2005 at some 5K road race.

You can be sure that I was near the back of the slow pack.

you can find me in my business deployment in my business coaching work here

This work portrait was take by Steve Nelson of FayFoto at a meeting of the Greater Boston Business Network in East Milton, MA. He brought in his “head shot” equipment to take a small number of gratis shots of GBBN members. I snuck in at the end. Steve did a great job of buffing my hair up. It always seems to be standing at near right angels to my head. Sort of a modified clown look.