Christmas Preparations

What a weekend! Yesterday we went to the Galleria to see Santa. I know, the Galleria on a Saturday morning two weekends before Christmas...not a very smart idea! But we just haven't had time to go, and we HAD to get a Santa pic! I usually like the Santa at the Galleria, but this one seemed rather scruffy to me. I had already decided to tell Sarah that I thought he was probably a helper, but she didn't ask. Well, she did ask how he could be at the mall when we had JUST passed him on the side of the road on the way to the mall, but she didn't ask which one was real. Anyway, this turned out to be a pretty random Santa visit. When he arrived at 10am, the workers started the music, and guess what it was? Jingle Bells? Here Comes Santa Claus? No... it was Hey Macarena! I kept waiting for him to do the dance but it never happened. Strange.

After pictures, we went and painted Christmas plates. I have one that I did when I was 5, so I wanted the girls to do one this year. They didn't want to do handprints; they both wanted to paint freehand. Abby did a tree, and Sarah did Santa and an elf, or two elves, I'm not sure. But they both looked cute.

Later we wrapped presents, and worked on the ornaments that they're making for all their friends, and stuffed Christmas cards. We ended the festivities with a visit to CPK. Yum. Once again, though, the Galleria for a dinner destination probably wasn't a smart choice. The traffic was so thick that the police were directing traffic at all the lights. We actually witnessed one stressed-out cop throw his flashlight at one car who tried to ignore his directions. Crazy.

Today we went to church, and tonight we rode the Polar Express train in Calera. It was cute, and their Santa was the best I've ever seen, but I doubt we'll do it again. It was probably a "once in a lifetime" thing. There was a lot of waiting around. Wait to get on the train. Wait for the train to start. Wait to get to the North Pole. (And there wasn't any snow at the North Pole, so Sarah didn't buy it.) Wait for the elves. Wait for Santa. Waiting isn't one of our strengths...