Snow Day And Santa Clause

We are on a Christmas Dash from here on out as we make memories and explore traditions, and I want to be sure to have a place for all of these moments.

The first full weekend of December brought J's company family party complete with snow, "sledding," and of course, that jolly fellow himself. 

We arrived a little late, and W looked on with skepticism when we arrived. What is that white stuff and what does one do with it? 

He looked back, and if you could hear his thoughts, I'd imagine they go something like, "Is this right, Daddy? Just walk in? And then what?"

It was pretty cold on his fingers, and thanks to the invitation's warning that the "snow" will be wet and cold, we were fully prepared with gloves.

Which made things much better!

We enjoyed snow as we imagine Northerners do by tossing snowballs at Daddy and building mini "Frostys." I imagine our friends up north feel about playing outdoors every day in the cold much like we do about playing outside with our tiny people in 100+ degree summers. To us, though, this was a magical afternoon.

We missed the hayride out to the petting farm as they stopped running the tractors at dusk, but The Sheriff took it in stride. In fact, he was laid back throughout our entire wait in the Santa line, until...
it was our turn.

And then?

I wasn't going to make him sit on Santa's lap alone in distress, so I sat my pregnant self on him complete with overstuffed bag and screaming toddler.  After all, his mission was to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. Perhaps I could have prepared him better for sitting on the strange man's lap. He made out like a bandit with not one but two candy canes and even told old Kris Kringle that he wanted "Bash, Dash, and Ferdinand" to which Santa responded, "Oh!" just like every other response he gets from this request. Thomas the Train loyals will know just what he wants!

One quick hot dog dinner later, and we were ready for more snow, this time conquering the big kids section with a bit of sledding. W really wanted to participate and wiped out on his first ride, making that change of clothes suggested and brought totally necessary. Our little just-a-southern-boy-in-the-snow trooper got right back up and couldn't wait to ride down again and again. 

The evening ended with a fireworks, a show that produced a toddler "whoa" with every rocket. I'm grateful that J works for such a family friendly company and the memories we made at our first family snow day!