playgroup visit with Santa

Monday, December 19th was our playgroup Christmas party. A local church was kind enough to let us use their recreation hall and the kids really enjoyed playing around while we moms ate and talked. And we had a special visitor!

Santa had each of the kids' names on his list and he double checked it after talking with them to see if they'd been naughty or nice. He even had a little present for each of the kids. My friend Alisha's daughter Elena seemed to have a great time talking to Santa.

Holland wasn't quite sure about visiting with Santa, but in the end he sat on Santa's lap for a minute.

I love the look on Isabel's face here--it's typical Isabel, sweetness with some mischief mixed in.

Jed was, frankly, terrified of Santa. I don't know if you can see just how tightly his arm is around my neck, but there was no convincing Jed to sit on Santa's lap. But he didn't cry! And he showed Santa his bouncy balls, too.

Santa had a Pooh Bear coloring book for Jed, which he was pretty excited about.

He told Santa all about Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet and Pooh.

Elena, Holland and Isabel cozying up to Santa one last time. Elena can't quite decide if Santa is real or not, and when she asked me who he really was, I was happy to be able to tell her honestly that I was pretty sure he was Santa. He had a real beard and his reindeer jingle bells, after all (although, since it is Texas, he used a car and gave the sleigh a chance to stay at the north pole and be oiled).

After all the kiddos got through, Santa asked any moms if we wanted a chance to plead our cases for our behavior. We all jumped at the chance!

Julie,

Me,

and Alisha (sorry to the rest of you I didn't get) all managed to convince Santa we'd been pretty good. It was a fun party and we had a great time getting festive.

I can't blame my stomach flu on the party, but it hit me less than 12 hours later, and I was down and out for quite a while afterward. Let's just say party food isn't that much fun the second time around :(