Santa...Merry Christmas!

The kids and I went to visit Santa at the Center Grove Orchard.  It was so much fun!  Avalon sat right in Santa's lap and showed him her list that she wrote out all by herself.  Well, I told her how to spell everything, but she wrote the letters/words by herself.  Then she went on to tell Santa what was on her list and dropped it in his mail box when she was done.  It was really cute!  Avalon also brought Santa a present containing some ornaments that she had made for him.  She was so excited to see Santa and give him his gift! :)

Archie was not ready to sit on Santa's lap right away, but after we ate pancakes for breakfast and Avalon started eating her candy cane that she received from Santa, he decided it was worth sitting on Santa's lap for a picture if it meant that he received a candy cane afterwards too!  :)

Here's a picture of Avalon's list for Santa.  Actually, there were two lists: a toy list and a book list.  You can see why he needed a little help reading them!

There were also lots of other fun things to do there.  The kids decorated and ate sugar cookies, colored a picture for the coloring contest, sat in Santa's sleigh pulled by Rudolf, and went on an outdoor sleigh/hay ride pulled by horses.  But the best part was that Santa kept coming over to the kids to chat with them.  It was so fun!  He came over while the kids were decorating cookies and asked them if the cookies were for him.  Avalon was ready to give up a cookie too, but Archie said "no, you have to make it by himself."  :)



Then he came over again while they were playing in the sleigh and was telling the kids how this was just his small sleigh and that he has a much bigger one that he uses on Christmas Eve.  Then Avalon went on to say "I really like your belt."  It was so cute!  And then Santa came to greet us after the sleigh ride and took the kids to say hi to the horses.  Avalon even got to pet the horses while Santa held her, but Archie decided to keep his distance.  The kids were having so much fun chatting with Santa, it was a really wonderful time!