This is a picture of Cally and Hazen's first meeting with Santa. I know, she's almost five and most kids are plopped on this jolly old man's lap when they are babies........ It just never happened. It's not like we were trying to avoid the guy, it just never fit into the schedule (or we missed the boat). This year, we made it to our local Country Store and it was the real deal. Santa was there, the line was short, they offered us cookies and candy canes and the kids loved being able to tell them what they wanted (and stuffed owl for Cally and a stuffed frog for H).
Right before we went visit Santa, Cally's good friend, Piper called at the last minute to see if she wanted to go on the Polar Express in Burlington. The Polar Express is something I'd only really heard about from other parents. We had recently read the book and I kicked myself for not even trying to get tickets for the event. It turns out, you have to enter a lottery in order to get a chance to buy tickets or you can volunteer the year before or you can pay an extra $100 to get a chance to get tickets. None of those options made it on to my "to do" list in October (or July when the opportunity presents itself), so I figured we'd attempt to make it happen next year. So, when Piper invited to Cally to go, we dropped everything to make sure it worked out.
She had such a great time! What a treat. Now I need to figure out a way to get tickets for next year!
