Recently, Facebook brought up a ‘memory’ from way back in my timeline regarding a post I made about playing Santa Claus at a ‘pet photos with Santa’ event.
It was the first year I played Santa at such events. My wife, a good friend at the time, convinced me to do it. It sounded like fun so I figured I’d give it a shot. I was also a lot heavier back then.
One of the guys who’d played Santa previously was telling me he had someone bring in a six-foot long ball python to get a photo with Santa. I thought that sounded cool and I was hoping that someone would bring in a ball python while I was playing Santa.
Alas, no such luck. However, the pet store the event was held at had a red-tailed boa constrictor. My wife was talking to the staff and asked them if I could hold the snake and get a photo. They agreed and went to get the snake.
When they brought it out, the employee told me that the snake had a lung infection. It was opening and closing its mouth, looking like it was going to bite someone. They said the snake was just doing this so it could get some air into its lungs as it dealt with the lung infection.
They wrapped the snake around my shoulders and got a great photo of me looking at the snake, the snake looking at me, and almost nose-to-nose.
The picture came out so good I used it on my Christmas cards that year. I sent one to my sister and a few days later I received a text from her saying “You sent me a Christmas card with a snake on it!”
“Yeah, cool isn’t it?” I texted back.
“Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo” she replied.
Did I mention that my sister is afraid of snakes?
If you liked this look into the way my mind works, why not buy me a chocolate chip cookie through my Ko-Fi page? https://ko-fi.com/jhusum