Ho, ho, ho! (Ian Meets the I.T. Guy Dressed in a Red Suit)

It had to happen eventually: Ian's first encounter with Mr. Kringle. Given that:

1. This is Ian's first Christmas


2. He is smack in the middle of the hilarity phase (will smile/laugh at anything)


3. He is too young to find Santa scary


4. Elaine's company - BD Technologies - was having a Christmas party for families and children, featuring food, drinks, decorations, and Santa,

we decided that this was the perfect time for Ian to be indoctrinated.

Here, you can see a picture of Uncle Greg signing Ian in at the front desk. The security guard made Ian his very own nametag. This is presumably in case someone was having a conversation with Ian and felt too embarrassed to ask him his name (because they were preoccupied observing his drooling when he introduced himself at the start of the conversation). Of course, having to look at his back is non too subtle and would proably give away their social awkwardness anyway.

Ian's dad grew up on Long Island - more specifically, in Dix Hills. Therefore, Ian has a little bit of Hanukkah in his genetic makeup, so Uncle Greg and Ian posed in front of the menorah display on the way in to the BD cafeteria to see Santa.

Here is a picture of the gingerbread man, Santa Claus, and one of Santa's many elves. Actually (and I know you will find this hard to believe), this trio in reality consists of three really zealous BD employees: Monica from HR, Dean from IT, and Heather (the vice president's administrative assistant).

So Ian got to sit on Santa's lap, and Santa gave Ian a small fuzzy toy (not pictured). Then Ian told Dean (a.k.a. Santa) that he had forgotten his password, and asked Dean to reset it. He also reported to Dean that his computer was running really slowly, and he is concerned about the presence of a virus or at least some especially high-overhead spyware. Of course, Ian has expertly configured his firewall and has no such problem; this is just his way of messing with Dean and showing affection for Dean's being a good sport and donning the Santa suit:

And one final shot of Ian with his hand in his mouth, still on Santa's lap, and Dean, bemused but finally learning never to bet the over on the Panthers in the office football pool. He is already hard at work studying his baseball stats, knowing that placing last in the office fantasy baseball league would mean that Dean will repriese his role as the Easter Bunny.