Louisa, Drew, and Hunter meet the LSU Santa in Purple and Gold Land

You know how some states could care less about their professional teams because they have college teams that are worshipped from one end of the state to the other? It doesn't even matter if you went to that school. You're still a Tiger, or Bulldog, or a Gator. You grew up wearing their colors, watching your dad scream at the TV every Saturday, and celebrating the big wins as if you were on that team and contributed personally.

That's Louisiana. Around here they say, Saints, who? This is 100% Tiger country. They bleed purple and gold here. Even if you've never been to Baton Rouge, LSU is YOUR school, and YOUR team.
That brings me to the interesting situation we encountered tonight. (And I realize the timestamp at the top will say Saturday, but by "tonight" I mean Friday since I haven't gone to bed yet.) Do you ever wish you would have read the paper before heading out and driving an hour to do something special with the family? Like checked to make sure that special thing would still be there, or that the special thing didn't have any weird events going on such as "Purple and Gold day"?
Well, ladies and, well, it's probably mostly just ladies.... I give you, the Purple and Gold LSU Santa Claus!

I'm sure you understand that when you scan one of those flimsy printer pictures, you don't get good quality. These pictures don't really do this Santa justice. He was all decked out in true Tiger colors, and if I hadn't opted for the little border the kids thought was so cute, you'd see the gold and purple trees that surrounded him.
Here we are walking through the mall tonight with two missions. One, see Santa. Two, get mom new shoes because mom only owns 3 comfy pairs and the dog chewed one up and peed on the other two. That leaves mom with no comfy everyday-shoes.
Mission one, we approach the Santa-Land thingy with much anticipation. We've driven an hour just for this.... and we find the LSU Santa..... um..... what did I miss? There is a big sign behind me that says "This weekend only! Have your picture taken with Santa wearing Purple And Gold! Go Tigers!"
yipee.
Louisa (gosh I love her, and her smart mouth.... ) "Mom! How could you come on the ONLY weekend he's wearing LSU colors?" Gee, I don't know. Maybe because I never in a million years thought we'd come across a Santa wearing purple and gold! We're from Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Badgers are red and white! We don't have this issue up there! And if Santa wants to dress up with a cheesehead and the Packer green and gold, well that's cool! Purple and gold just isn't quite the same.
It's all in fun, though. The kids sat and told Santa those few things they accidentally left off their lists, and let him know that they will be at Grandma and Grandpa's house this year so please bring their presents up there.
As we left the mall, Louisa and infinite silver lining says, "Well, at least we can tell our kids someday about coming to the mall with grandma when we were little and getting our pictures taken with a LSU Santa!" And then Drew piped in, "Ya, and my son will play football at LSU so he'll think it's cool!"
Ixnay on the LSU-ay! Don't ever let your grandpa hear you say that!
So thus ends our day in Purple and Gold Land. May it be awhile before we have to return.