There seems to be a load of things people don’t mention about being a dad, as a result you don’t find out about them until you’re a Dad yourself, and you’re living the stuff that people don’t talk about. (Still with me?)

For example, the massively wide range of jobs you end up doing, jobs such as negotiator, monster hunter, or human transport device. (Aka carrying on your shoulders).

The other evening, a local charity had arranged for Santa to wonder the streets of Exeter. As a result, I found myself walking the streets to find Santa. (This was to ensure he walked the roads we were hoping he would).

I reached the end of the road where I expected to find them, and as the reality of the cold air kicked in, I wondered why on Earth I was doing this.

It’s hard to explain the emotions felt as Santa and his sleigh turned around the corner at this moment.

But I very much felt that I had “found Santa”.

Twist in the tail? When he passed our place, the small one didn’t want to speak / see / smile at him. But Santa did have a sleigh, and the sleigh did have plenty of lights on, which we had to follow that around until we agreed to wave “bye”.

Obviously. Following the sleigh was all done on my shoulders…

That terrible picture above? If you look really closely, you may indeed also see Santa.