Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of our loved ones reading this!  I hope you are having a wonderful holiday!!

Thought it would be a good time to share the pictures of the kids with our real Santa from Lew's work holiday party.  This is the 5th year we have photos with him! 

The company does a superb job on this event.  We look forward to going each year.  They host it on 2 nights so that all workers can find time to attend no matter which shift they work.  When you arrived this year, you got a number for your spot in line to see Santa and Mrs Claus.  This was a new addition last year and worked really well again.  They had a screen up showing what numbers needed to be lined up.  We only had to physically stand in line for about 3 minutes.   This gave us plenty of time to be crafty.  When we entered, they gave us a bag for each kid to put the projects into (the bags were new this year also) so we didn't have to juggle as much as in the past.  We still had the glitter glue issue and not being able to place those items into the bag, but I think next year we are going to insist gently request that Gretchen not use any glitter glue on these projects.  She loves this party.  These craft projects are right up her alley. 

This kind of shows you the whole room.  As you see, there are tables of workers helping kids with various crafts.  You can also see the trees up on the stage area.  That is where Santa and Mrs Claus are seated with elves helping them hand out the presents.  This year, the kids received stuffed penguins which they love.  Off to the left of this picture is where the dessert table was located.  Mmm... the red velvet cookies with white chocolate chips were delicious!  There were also a couple employees dressed up in costumes running around throughout the evening.  There was a toy soldier that works with Lew and someone in a big mascot type snowman costume.  That person was having fun.  They kept taking the cotton balls from one craft project and throwing them at kids for a snowball fight.  Both kids had a lot of fun participating the snowy fun!

Here are some of Lew's team members after Gretchen spent probably 15 minutes with them decorating a little tree!  They all agreed that she was the most thorough child all night.  You can see her penguin here, too. 

One more new thing this year was the addition of Santa's Movie theater...  they had Christmas specials showing and had a popcorn machine right there to serve the kids.  Carl spent his time eating popcorn and watching TV while Gretchen crafted.  I did get him to make me a couple ornaments.  One was a reindeer style that he has made for the past few years. I love having a series!  The other one was a style he has also made in the past, but this year was much more into it.  He was sticking those foam stickers onto a ball ornament.  He was psyched that they had gingerbread man shaped ones!  He is really into the Gingerbread Man story this season. 

Lindy joined us at the party, too.  He was helpful in keeping an eye on both kids with me while Lew chatted to all his work buddies, but even moreso as a helper for carrying some of the glitter glue creations until they dried.  Oh, who am I kidding... they weren't dry by the time we left.  Everyone knows glitter glue takes 187 hours to dry.   But, we all had fun... and her ornaments are now dry and beautiful!!

If you want to look back on our photos with (the real) Santa, click here for the 2010 entry and click here for the 2009 entry that includes photos from 2007 & 2008. 
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Merry Christmas from us and the Clauses!!