December Festivities

Not much time left before the big guy in red visits the house.  Helaina's been on a Santa high for weeks now.  She's crushed his lap more than once this year.

Happy Holidays!

First Santa visit was at a holiday party at school.

We had breakfast with Santa at the zoo once again this year.  Frosting cookies with Mrs.Claus is always fun.  "Oops, did I use too much frosting - again?"

"Oh well, I'll hide the gobs of frosting with gobs of sprinkles."

Santa at the zoo has been the same Santa (well of course he is!) since we've been attending these breakfasts, and he's just great.  Takes time to talk with each child individually and makes them feel special.

Then of course there are the animals and the usual fun.

Messing around with Daddy on the tiger sculpture.

What happened to this guy's other antler?  Reminds me of the dog in How the Grinch Stole Christmas when the Grinch tied one antler onto the poor little critter.

Of course there's Santa at the mall (love his vest) ...

... and Santa at Daddy's work.

At work on Daddy's phone - she's a natural on the phone, I tell you.

Thursday was Helaina's party at school.  Here she is making her gingerbread house.  They spread frosting on small milk cartons and "glued" graham crackers on them.  Then they decorated with candies and more frosting.

By the end of the craft there were 19 kids covered in frosting ...

... and all on a sugar high.  Good luck with the rest of the afternoon, Miss M!

Last night we took a ride on the Polar Expess to the North Pole to see Santa.  Helaina had been bugging us all summer long that she wanted to ride a train.  We had good intentions of doing that but my boo boo knee cramped our style and we never made it on a train.  No worries, though, because this worked out just perfect.

At the train station prior to departure, writing a letter to Santa.

Staring out the window looking for Santa.  Our train left at 4:30 so it was light out when we left but soon got dark.

We made it to the North Pole, picked up Santa and he visited with each family on the reverse ride back to civilization.  He was a great Santa.  Sat in each family's 4-seat booth and chatted quite a while with each child and then gave them a silver reindeer bell - just like the one in the Polar Express movie.

Santa and the kids, both young and old.

Santa hugs.  Ahhh, nothing better when you're 6 years old (almost 7, as Helaina tells everyone who asks her age).  7, I can hardly believe that one myself.