Going to see Santa

Evie and Evan were able to visit with Santa on Saturday, December 4.  My Mom had a coupon for a free picture with him over at Town and Country Village in Sacramento.  Jim and I thought this sounded like a great deal.  Also, the day Santa was appearing Town and Country Village was having a special Christmas event featuring free goodies, carolers, crafts for the kids, and special sales at the local shops.

Below is a picture of Evie all dressed up to meet Santa for the first time in her new little Christmas dress.

Here is the whole family waiting in line to meet Santa.  Don't you just love how the kids match in their Christmas gear. :)

Now to the official visit with Santa.  Evan had been practicing for awhile what he was going to tell Santa when he saw him, he loves Thomas the Tank Engine and well he wanted two of Thomas' friend's James and Percy.  So for weeks every time we mentioned Santa, Evan would say "James and Percy."  He even saw one of his favorite characters on television visit with Santa, Caillou, so we thought he is ready. 

Well seeing him in person is always so different as we all know.  When Evan first got next to Santa to say hi, he was nervous as seen below.

 

In this picture Jim is trying to work with him again on what we had been practicing.  I think Evan was a little disappointed too because he had wanted to be brave and say what he had been practicing, but then got a little nervous and cried.  Poor baby boy!

And to make maters worse we placed Evie on Santa's lap first and well she immediately started crying.  This made Evan question everything he had been working towards and he cried more too.  We even tried just having him stand next to Santa.  No go!

 

At this point we realized they were both going to just cry and we figured we will just go with the crying picture.  So Jim put Evan back on Santa's lap.

 

And this is what you get...both kids not super happy to meet Santa.  Poor Santa! :)  But we got a funny memory that we can share with the kids for years to come.

One final note about our visit to see Santa.  While we were there we ran into good friends Natalie, Tyler, Janye and Natalie's Mom, Valerie.  It was so much fun!  Here they are in front of William Glen, a long time Sacramento store that is closing it's doors.

Here are Evan and Tyler with some other little kids. :)  Tyler is eating a free bag of Kettle Corn they were handing out at the event.  We got some too!  So yummy!

The kids also got to decorate Ginger Bread cookies.  Here is Evan with his box.  He was very proud and super excited to eat the M&M's on his cookie.  This is his classic pose lately, saying CHEESE and then looking somewhere off in the distance will doing it. :)

Last, but certainly not least, Grandma and Grandpa with Evie at the event.  At this point in the day she was done!

Good memories, free stuff, and Christmas cheer...all in all it was a great day!  Thanks Mom and Dad for the idea and free coupon. Love ya!