Preparing to venture out
Arriving at the Playcentre - notice the change of colour in the beard. We used the beard from the Playcentre suit rather than the one from our friends.
Exhausted
Kipp and Santa
Monty and Kipp and Santa 
Kipp in his outfit at the Playcentre ready to meet Santa - Dec 2010 
Getting his present
Kipp got a helicopter
Our backyard 
At Queensgate - Dec 2010Santa for the day: Well I was on the 18 December 2010. Dressed up in the outfit which we borrowed from a friend. The Playcentre had one, but our friends one was better, except for the beard.
I think it went off OK and Kipp didn't recognise me which was good.
We were met by a Policeman and he took me in. Prior to that I hid in the car covered in a blanket so the kids couldn't see me.
Other matters: Obama is a real disappointment. He has just caved in to the Republicans and agreed to extend the tax cuts for the ultra-rich.
This quote about this turnabout is from a member of the Senate, Bernie Sanders, who is the Independent member from Vermont is -
I can live with the President fighting for something and failing; what I can’t stand is a politician who changes his mind for the sake of expediency and then pretends that was what he believed all along.
Saunders is a a real oddity for a US politician.
He calls himself a Democratic Socialist. A Socialist - good grief!!
He is probably to the right of ex Labour (now ACT) Minister of Finance Roger Douglas.
Sanders ran for mayor of Burligton and won thanks to a vote split (isn't First Past the Post great) and then won three more terms. In his last run for mayor, in 1987, he defeated a candidate endorsed by both major parties.
In 1990 in an upset, he became the the first independent member of the House since 1950. Later in 2006 he stood and won a Senate seat.
