A Morning With Santa

Christmas at my house when I was little was always really fun. My birthday is a few days before Christmas, and every year my parents would hire a Santa, have all of my cousins and family over and have a big holiday birthday party. One year, my parents told me that I said I could hear the reindeer land on the roof. Ah, the mind of a child. I can remember as I got older when I started to realize that Santa wasn't real was because he always seemed to have the same wrapping paper as my parents did. I think I tried to pushed that thought in the back of my mind as long as I could. As a parent now, I am very conscious of my wrapping paper. Although Ella is probably still too young to think of something like that (hopefully).

The other day, my Mom and I took Ella to the downtown Macy's to see the holiday display. This year was called "A Day in the Life of an Elf". Its a free exhibit that they have every year and then you get to see Santa at the end of the tour. It was a really cool display, smaller than I remember though, still big enough for the little ones. We were packed between so many people going through this display like a herd of cattle that I couldn't position myself to get a picture of her reactions. It was a bummer....but the most important thing was that she enjoyed it.




Santa was so wonderful. When his helper ushered my Mom, Ella and I through the curtain and around the corner to see him, he immediately opened up his arms and said,

"Oh Ella, I am so glad you are here. I was hoping you would come to see me today!"

My child grabbed and hugged him like he was a long lost uncle. She was so excited. So then I started snapping pictures....moving from one position to another, and then asked them to look at me and smile (unfortunately, that one came out blurry). Then the girl taking the pictures asked if she wanted me to take a picture or if I got what I needed. I said, "Thank you, I think I got enough of my own." :o)




Ella and her Amu


We ended the morning by having lunch at our favorite restaurant. Have I mentioned Ella is a butter fanatic? She loves butter. She is always so well behaved at this restaurant because she spoons all of the butter onto the pita bread herself....sometimes taking a spoonful in her mouth! I know! Puke!



After going through the display, waiting in line for almost an hour to see Santa and going out to lunch, you could see it in her eyes that she was down for the count. It was a wonderful morning though.