Thanks alot Lady!

Yesterday Santa was in our neighborhood! We had been told tales of hot cocoa and cookies with Santa. Also that they had a "sleigh" ride for the kids to ride down the street and throw candy to surrounding houses. Then you could get your picture with Santa!

So with only 15 minutes notice.....we headed out. We had JUST finished dinner so I didn't think it would be necessary to pack a full diaper bag. I figured the cookies they were going to have with Santa would pacify them so I brought along the staples........diapers, wipes and only one sippy cup (it's all I could find at the time of leaving).

When we arrived there, all we saw was a line to take pictures with Santa. So, we got in line. The line didn't really move that fast at all. We saw our friends and chatted a bit. They were in line ahead of us and had somewhere else to be and weren't going to step back in line to wait with us. I can't say I blame them (especially since his wife is 38 weeks pregnant).

They had run out of cookies and only had cheesecake bites and brownies with the hot cocoa. But at this point, I didn't care. We were there and we were going to get a better picture of our kids with Santa.

Well, Santa was a really good Santa. BUT Santa was a very chatty Santa!!! I think it's GREAT that he was spending such quality time with each child, but try waiting in that line for an hour and see how happy the Kearley boys are to meet this man. Brittney told him her wish of getting a Nintendo DS and he gave her a test to see if she was ready for a game like that. It was cute, but come on already....there's lots of screaming back here (and it wasn't just our kids). Here's Brittney chatting it up with Santa.

So, when we finally got into the gazebo where Santa was Jace was getting VERY impatient. So the nice lady assisting Santa came over to talk to him and handed him a candy cane. My boys have never had a candy cane so I thought why not give it a try. Jace loves candy and boy did he love that candy cane. Well, the nice lady picked a blue candy cane out of ALL the candy canes she had in her lovely little basket. Cade decided that he wanted to try it too.

With all of that introduction, I give you another Kearley Christmas picture............

What treasured memories we have of Santa this year. I really appreciate the lady who was handing out candy canes. I could hear other parents behind us saying "what's with all the blue stuff?" Steve politely said (b/c the lady was within ear shot) that we had been handed a candy cane BEFORE seeing Santa. You could hear a collective sigh and giggles. I'm sure we had the BEST picture of anyone there!

We had to come home and throw Mr. Cade into the bath to scrub off all of the blue.

So now we have 2 pictures with Santa - one of Jace screaming and one of Cade screaming. When I pointed that out to Brittney, she said "I am the only little angel in the family for BOTH pictures." I think that I have to agree this year. Gotta love her.