In Case You Forgot...: Santa Claus came to Visit

8 days after Emmaline was born my Sister-in-law had Santa Claus come over to a friend in their ward's house. Let me preface this by explaining why. My niece attends the same school that her mom works at and this year the kindergarten class was having a Santa Claus come and visit. Unfortunately the space was limited and u, if memory serves me right, had to sign up for. Well my SIL did that, right away in fact only to find out that Jenna wasn't chosen and that some other teachers who's kids weren't even in Kindergarten or at the school were included. Well as you can imagine that would be pretty hard for a five year old to handle. Jenna was quite upset!! Thankfully her mom has some good connections from all the times her father (who was an AMAZING Santa Claus) dressed up as Mr. Claus. She called one of her dad's old Santa buddies and he agreed to come pay a visit (for a small nominal fee.) Well eventually it turned into a little bigger than just us and my SIL's two kids and was moved to a member's home in their ward. All together I think there were about 13 kids there ranging in ages from 2 to 11 (give or take a couple of years.)
Since Emmaline was still too new I left her home and took advantage of the chance to get away, (Brandon didn't want to drive in the pouring rain), and brought Lillian and Preston. It was quite an adventure, the area we were driving to was in a lower area of Ontario so there were quite a lot of streets flooded. It was also night time and the street wasn't bright enough for me to find the street numbers, or maybe they were simply covered with water. Anyway, it took me a few minutes to find the place and then we had to part around the corner on a separate street because the member's home was on a street you couldn't park on. I parked on the higher end of the street to avoid any problems that might come up, unfortunately that meant we still had to cross it. Let's just say our pants and feet got a little wet, mine more then the kids but still we were a little damp when we got to the house and it wasn't a far walk at all!! LOL But then I did say it was pouring!!!
Lillian quickly found out why we were there and was even more excited then just seeing her cousins. The kids played and visited for awhile while we waited for Santa to arrive. I wish I could have taken a picture of the kids faces when he arrived. It was truly picturesque!! They all enjoyed visiting with him and listening to what he told them. Then it was time to tell him what they wanted. Lillian did her best to wait her turn and was very relieved when her turn came.

Aunt Cami had little gift bags that she had prepared for all the kids. Johnathan the elf passed them out. :)

Telling Santa she had been a good girl this year, and kept her room clean and made her bed.....(mommy clearing her throat)!!

Such a cute picture of them! I love it!!

Santa gave a candy cane to each of the kids!!

Preston was a little more reserved. He still has problems letting some of our own immediate family hold him. So I knew that a complete stranger, regardless of who it was, was out of the question. Santa talked to him for a couple of minutes, I told him what he liked and wanted, he gave him his candy cane, a quick photo and that was it for him!! At least it turned out cute!! Maybe next year he will be better.