An audience with Santa Claus

I know it's February, but it's never too late to catch up on old blog posts, right?  In early December, we took the kids to Wolcott Mill Metro Park to see Santa.  Unfortunately, our broken camera kind of hampered the documenting of the event, but we had a great time.  The old mill is really cool and there were a bunch of little activities (like making ornaments and roasting marshmallows) that we could have done if the kids were a little bit older.  We had to do a surgical strike to make it to see Santa and get home in time for bedtime, but neither kid seemed to mind.

Santa was very patient (he insisted on taking time to give Charlotte a chance to recover from the horror of the spectacular belly flop she took when she tripped upon entering the Santa enclosure) and very friendly.  He nodded repeated back the things the kids said to him and did all the things you hoped he would do.  Our only regret is the horrible photos we took.  I know we could have gone to another Santa at the mall for some more official shots, but Corey and I got lazy and used the excuse that it might confuse the kids to visit multiple Santas.

Charlotte asked for a unicorn and Peter babbled on and on about something Batman-related.  Charlotte was still a little thrown by her awkward entrance, but Petey was being uncharacteristically smiley for photos.  Too bad this is the best one we got.

Wolcott Mill looks really cool and has a bunch of the old mill buildings still standing for tours.  We're going to have to go back sometime this spring to check it all out in the daylight.  Here's an old bread flour bag from the mill's working days.

Thanks for coming to see Santa with us, NanaB & GrandDad!

Next year, we would love to come back to this same Santa, but we're going to plan the outfits a little better and make sure we have a good working camera along.