Happy Winter

Two fun things happened last weekend (well, more than that but I'm speaking broadly). First, we met Santa. Second, we went to the snow. Santa was an accident. We were going to Country Club Mall to buy a sled for the snow. I figured this was pretty safe since Country Club Mall is the zombie of malls - it's dead and it doesn't know it yet. Also, it will eat your brain given the chance. So I figured there was no way they had the scratch to have a Santa there. Yeah - WRONG. We walked through the doors at 10 a.m. and there was "the chair" and the trees and the giant creepy fake Jack-in-the-box. Everything but the elves. Well, my 3 year old isn't stupid. He knows what all that means this time of year. So we were stuck between a tantrum and a hard place, as it were. But Santa wasn't going to be there until 11, so we had some time. Buying the sled took about 25 minutes. Jake was wearing his grey sweats and a pirate t-shirt, not an outfit I thought appropriate to meet and have one's picture taken with Santa. So I went to Ross and bought him the only outfit I could find in his size that wasn't ridiculous - jeans and a polo. By the time I got back, the line had formed and Steve and Jake were 3rd. Nice! A quick change and it was almost time for the jolly old elf to appear. When he arrived, he stopped and talked to Jake for a minute. He even complimented his nail polish: a fact for which I will always go back to Country Club at Christmas. By the time it was Jake's turn, he was actually glowing from the joy of talking to Santa. He told him he wanted knights and dragons for Christmas and took a great picture on his lap. He spent the rest of the weekend telling anyone who listened that he "knows Santa." Like they do lunch and go on vacation together. It was awesome. 3 is the BEST age for Santa!

Sunday we went to the snow at Adventure Mountain at Echo Lake. It's a really fun snow park/sledding area that we had been to last year. Only about 80 miles from home. We got there before the rest of the playgroup because I know my boy and snow and 2 hours was simply NOT going to be enough. We sledded for about an hour before everyone else came. Then we sledded as a group for another 1-1.5 hours. Jake went down all by himself most of the time! He tried Brandon's saucer and it went too fast for him (plus, I tried to stop him at the bottom and ended up splitting the poor kid's lip :-() but his sled got great use. We had lunch, made a snowman (that should be in quotes...), and had a great snowball fight. The snow was perfect, the day was warm and sunny, the company was fun - it was a great way to kick off the snow season! Of course, he didn't sleep at all on the way home (unlike his Daddy) so took a late nap at Ama's house, which made getting to bed hard. But totally worth it and we all can't wait to go again.

Coming up we have Hanukkah with the family (yes, I know it's been over for over a week), Christmas, of course, including a surprise addition to the requested knights and dragons, Uncle David's visit, and much more fun. Happy Holidays everyone, from our family to yours.