Ho Ho Ho...ly Line

Today we visited the jolly bearded man. There were about four different "neato" outings we had to choose from, but a jaunt to a cute little town about 20 minutes away seemed like a pleasant manner in which to meet up with Santa. Oooo ~ and he was a "good" one too....perfect size, great beard, the right age, nice voice. I liked him.

The event was at a library where they also had Mrs. Claus in attendance, along with a hard-working elf who was reading books & scurrying about helping with this, that and the other thing. There were areas where the kids could color and enter a contest with their art piece, decorate a cookie, and make a pipe cleaner & bead ornament. The function was from 10am-noon. We arrived about 11:20.....to find a line so long that I couldn't even see the end of the winding maze of people. Having no idea how long it might take us to be able to encounter the large elf himself, we set up Ty as our place marker. Piling him up with all of our coats, hats, mittens & our video camera & digital camera bag, I took the girls on a little jaunt to keep them occupied.

Ty learned that the people in line behind him originally arrived right at 10am, but the line was already out the door. That would have been an almost 2-hour wait! They came back later to get in line behind us, but had to get to a child's birthday party as well, but didn't know if they'd make it in time. How do you make a kid choose ~ Santa....birthday party? Santa....birthday party?

Suffice it to say, they were all out of the supplies for our ornament making enjoyment, but there were still cookies to decorate. There were cookies, and we were approaching 12:05pm. I'm sure I have never let my children eat two cookies, especially ones that I didn't make, before noon.

Finally, with quite a lot of patience on their part, up in Santa's lap they went. A. was very prepared with her list in hand. When Santa commented on the length of her wish list, she politely pointed out that she didn't even use many of the lines on the page. M. was happy to hang out for her 2-minute dose of the jolly old elf. And that was that. Lots of waiting, a little video taping, a couple of pictures.....and another sweet memory for my memory bank.

Santa, can you clarify your definition of "good"?

Cookie #1.......or was it cookie #2?