Santa Hat

I was a chaperone on Drew's field trip today to the EMP (Experience Music Project) at the Seattle Center. It was a sunny freezing day. I think it was about 26 degrees. Brrrr! But the sky has been blue and that's about all I need. I was in charge of Drew and her friend Grace. Not too hard. We got to play instruments with instructional videos and look at all the Science Fiction memorabilia. My favorite was the Terminator! Love that movie so I had to get a picture of me with him/it.

This was a field trip for all of the choir students. They sang at the Seattle Center. The coolest part of the day is when we were eating lunch. There the girls sat in their cute Santa hats, which most of the kids wore for the concert. We were just waiting for their turn to perform. There were a few homeless looking but nice men at the next table. They left eventually. Then I watched another man walk in and I could tell that he was really not well off, maybe homeless, but well kept. His clothes were worn, he was a bit dirty, but he had a certain something about him that just got my attention. He sat at a table and after a while he approached us and tapped me on the shoulder and pointed at the girls' hats and held out 2 crumpled dollar bills. He was either deaf or mute or both. We didn't quite understand. I told Grace that I thought he wanted to buy her hat and she smiled and grabbed it tightly to her head and exclaimed that she liked her hat. Then he looked at Drew and she looked confused as he pointed to her hat and held out the money. He finally just held his hands up and walked back to his table. Drew looked at me with big eyes and quickly said she needed to go to the bathroom. I waited for her outside the bathroom and she immediately asked about the man. I told her it was her choice and we could always buy another. Maybe she could give it to him after the concert if he was still there. She looked a little panicked and said that she just wanted to do it now in case he left. She took it off, smoothed out her hair, walked right up to his table and held out the hat. He reached for his money and she held up her hands and said that she didn't want his money but she wanted him to have her hat. I swear my heart was bursting with happiness and I was so proud of her in that moment. She had the hugest smile on her face as we walked away and Grace said that that was the nicest thing she had ever seen and that now she wanted to give her hat to someone. Then they went and sang, Drew without her Santa hat. She kept looking over at the man who had put on the big red hat. He looked so happy and so did she. That's what this season is all about. Charity, joy, selflessness. The pure love that our Savior has.

I couldn't resist snapping a picture of him from afar and then from behind.

Drew talked about him quite a bit for the rest of the day. She was worried that maybe he doesn't have a place to live and that he can't really communicate. I mean, it's really not unusual that she worried and obsessed over it all day because she does that about everything. But it was pretty cute how she kept bringing it up. "Do you think he will die because of the cold?" I said that at least he has a nice cozy hat now. And he knows that there are people out there that care. Cute little blue eyed sweet girl.