A Visit with Santa

Every year for the last 11 years or so, there has been a big family Christmas party/reunion on Shawn's Dad's side of the family here in Utah. We have never gone for one reason or another since we got married. This year we scheduled it into our calender and made sure we made it. Shawn's parents and Sister and her little boy came to stay with us Friday and left today and they too went to to the party with us. It was really fun to meet family that live around us. Shawn's grandma's nephew's wife lives around the corner and we met all their kids. Her husband (Shawn's Grandma's Nephew) passed away a few years back and so she lives alone. We hope to adopt her as a Grandma since our Grandma's live far away and we don't get to see them often.

Some one at the Family party had some good connections as Santa took time out of his crazy schedule to come see the kids and bring them gifts. It was so fun to watch Mason go crazy to talk to Santa and sit on his lap. The kids gifts were a few of the last ones he got to and so they had to wait a while, but they did really good waiting.

Paige was all smiles about seeing this jolly happy man with a real white beard. She didn't hesitate once about sitting on his lap and was very happy while he talked to her. It was well past her bed time and I was shocked how much she enjoyed her visit with Santa. I wonder what she told him she wants for Christmas.

Emma talked to Santa and told him that she was trying hard to be good but sometimes she just can't help to be bad. I was laughing so hard inside. I wonder how many others heard her. She told him all the things she wants him to bring her and said she would try hard to be good and their visit was over. He brought her a Sleeping Beauty Barbie that included the 3 fairies. She was on cloud nine.

When Mason finally got his turn, he didn't waste anytime. He had been watching other kids visit with Santa and get their gifts from him for over 15 minutes and knew just what to do when it was his turn. He jumped up on Santa's lap and started opening the gift. Santa was truly funny and playing along with Mason as he said "You know where the good stuff is and don't waste any time getting to it". He said hi to Santa, didn't look once at the camera for a picture and as he was getting down, he said bye to Santa. That was it. No talking, asking for gifts or talking about what he wanted. He just wanted to get his gift, which he loved. He was given a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse bowling set.
Hopefully we will make it to the party again next year. There was a lot of family there, many we didn't know, and a few we did. I am sure that as we go more often and are more involved with this part of Shawn's family we will get to know many more and make some good lasting friendships among family.