Keith at Mission Viejo Santa's Workshop -- 09Dec2012

Wow! That was the most fun I've had in months! When I got there a half-hour early to set up, there was already a lot of people in line -- which was routed as I had requested so that I had a space to play that wasn't on the grass behind the picket fence. When I got ready to play, everybody was looking at me expectantly, so I felt brave enough to introduce myself and announce that if any kids wanted to come down front, they were welcome to. And come they did. And once there were kids down front, other arriving kids figured it was OK for them too, and it self-perpetuated all night.

So right away I've already got a kids' party going, and I'm playing all the kids' songs, way too fast, and they're dancing away. And more kids come, and more, and after a while I've got 20 kids, dancing, telling me stuff, asking me to guess their names (?!?), and requesting songs, songs I just did, songs I don't know, and songs I've never heard of. You can't fault their enthusiasm.

I had one terrific little girl in a long pink coat, dancing away to any and everything. She just kind of joined me "on stage", and took on the role of "go-go girl". She was there for so long that I started to worry that her parents had had to go see Santa without her, but when I said so, they were still over there in line, waving and smiling at the idea.

After a while she was joined by a tiny Chinese girl in a big puffy jacket, looking exactly like a living "Small World" doll. She was also an enthusiastic dancer, and pretty soon they were dancing together, holding both hands and jumping around.

Anyway, it was just amazingly fun. At times I was actually having trouble singing right 'cuz I was grinning too big. And lucky for me, there was a dad there with a big fancy camera who was taking lots of pictures, many of them directly of me. So I gave him a card and asked him to send me some, and he did (as you can see). Can't wait for the next one!