Santa Claus Is Coming to Town ...

Well, we have survived our annual Santa visit. This year was a little "rough" since we had Rowdy's Adventure Guide group, with their parents and siblings, join us. It was fun but crazy ... very crazy!

Santa started off by reading a book to the children. This special story was about the biggest birthday party ever - the birth of Jesus Christ. Santa was sure to point out that Christmas is not about presents or Santa Claus but about the birth of our savior.

Everyone listened intently to Santa's story. About this point I was having a panic attack. Of course you can't tell, but my camera started clicking and sputtering and freezing. My camera is my lifeline. I can't function without my camera. I was in quite the tizzy.Each child had his/her special one-on-one time with Santa. Rowdy's request from Santa was for a two wheel skate board. Santa's response "I'll see what I can do about that". I hate to break it to Rowdy, but Santa will not be able to fulfill that request this year.

Petunia's request was for a Webkinz. Hmmmm ... I feel for all those poor elves. I have a feeling that they are frantically working to make sure that each child gets their choice of Webkinz.

Rowdy was quite mesmerised by all of Santa's new bling. Santa has a really cool pocket watch that hangs from his belt.

The watch is neat, but not nearly as cool as Santa's new belt buckle. It is a huge oval with SC carved out of it.

Santa was so patient and kind. He took as much time as we needed for all our picture taking. Here is Rowdy with his friend from down the street. If you ever see these two coming your way, run!

After all the picture taking, Santa had a few moments to show the children his scrapbook of the North Pole. Wow! Mrs. Claus has done such a WONDERFUL job on this book. We got to see what the North Pole looks like decorated for Christmas as well as "summer". Santa told us that when he left the North Pole it was 29 degrees below zero. He said the summer months are a balmy 40 degrees! He also showed us pictures of each of the reindeer as well as the elves hard at work!
Each of the children listened so intently and asked questions while Santa showed his scrapbook.

After Santa finished with the scrapbook, each child helped to fill Santa's bag with items that are needed by the local homeless shelter. Poor Santa ... his bag was very full!And here is Santa transferring all donated items to an elf's truck for delivery.