Breakfast with Santa

This year we stepped up our Santa visit a bit - all the way to a breakfast! Actually, it was an easier, more enjoyable, and cheaper experience than any mall Santa could be.

The church that houses Sam's preschool offers a Santa breakfast as an annual outreach to the community. I'd like to say you can consider us reached, but I'm not entirely sure that's true. We hit up the Sunday morning affair bright and early at 8:30 and we're at our own church for worship by 11am (and we stopped at Home Depot in between!).

Anywho, we joined the Lutheran folk for pancakes, bacon and oranges - an incredibly nice change to the cold/dry cereal we've been having under our current housing situation. They provided some crafts for the kiddos, so I have a few beautiful additions for my tree this year. And then of course, the main event.

I'd started talking up the man in red a few days before. I explained that he comes the night before Christmas - only after everyone is asleep - and brings a few presents to help us celebrate Baby Jesus's birthday. But he also makes some visits a few weeks before Christmas so that we can all tell him what we'd like him to bring us for Baby Jesus's birthday.

Sam was good with this idea. Decided he would tell Santa he wanted candy and trains. But he wasn't going to sit on his lap. Hmm...more talking to do.

The day arrived, and as we were walking to the car Sam asked me,
"Mommy, talk to me again."
"What do you want me to talk to you about?"
"About him."
"Umm...oh you mean Santa?"
"Yeah!" So we went through it all again.

When we walked in he didn't want to go right up to Santa. We let him eat first, in full sight, to get used to the Big Man. At one point he said he was ready to go see him, so we walked right up (no line - beautiful!). Then he got stage fright. I feared this wasn't going to go well, until the camera suggested that Santa offer a candy cane. Now, Sam had never tasted a candy cane before, but he heard "Sam, Santa has candy..." and that was all it took. He walked right up to him and let him pull him into his lap. With candy cane in hand, he timidly told Santa that he'd like trains for Christmas this year. A few pictures snapped, and the visit was over.


I'm pretty sure this was our best Santa visit so far. I am having a blast this year as Sam really learns and enjoys all of the Christmas traditions that I loved as a child. Still more fun to come!