Santa and the Hay(less) Ride

The Friday before last, Duke, the kids and I met our good friends the Krumrei's at good old McDonald's for a quick (well, nothing is quick when it comes to my kids eating but the intent for 'quick' was there) Once we finally finished eating we all headed over to the Elementary school where the Avon Women of Today were putting on a Christmas event. There was a horse drawn hay(less) ride, which I didn't end up getting any pictures of because it was so cold out an I had a little dumplin' sitting on my lap. They also had crafts, a silent auction and a chili cook off, but the highlight was an appearance by Santa and Mrs. Claus!
The line was long but we waited patiently until the kids got their chance to sit on the big guy's lap. Meghan and Peyton got to talk with Santa and Mrs. Claus first. Meghan was onto him cause she pointed out that he has black boot-covers on instead of actual boots. We tried to divert attention and told her that his feet would have gotten much too hot sitting in that gymnasium if he had his real, warm boots on!
Next up was Grant and Audrey.
Okay, scratch that! Just Grant was up next.
Little Tooters didn't capitalize on her chance as she was too busy clinging to my leg for dear life. As far as I know, the only things Grant asked for were the Lego Star Wars and Lego Indiana Jones Wii games and some Lego guys. Such a different perspective from what I see and hear...as he walks through the store and sees something he likes he stands in front of it and, as if almost in prayer, asks Santa to bring it to him for Christmas. And I am not kidding one bit. He does this year round whenever there is a toy in the store that he doesn't get (which is A LOT) Thanks goodness he doesn't remember everything he wishes for or Santa would be in deep doo-doo!!
As for Tootie, it took a lot of coaxing and hand-holding to get her to even walk up to Mrs. Clause to accept her bag of treats.
Until lately, Audrey has had never shown signs of being shy. I guess she is making up for lost time. At one point I was taking pictures of Peyton and Megan on Santa's lap. Tooters didn't see that I had moved a few steps away form her and when she had a bout of shyness she latched, and I mean latched, with her face buried into the thigh of another Mom. Luckily the Mom was an acquaintance of ours and not a total stranger. I had to peel her off of Leslie's leg and then when she noticed it was me tuggin' on her she had the look of shock on her face. So priceless!As you can see, she was a much happier camper once she had her bag of treats and wasn't within arms reach of the Big Guy in red!The boys were much too hyper to sit and quietly do crafts and Grant would never even think of tasting Chili so off they went to run a few laps around the guy and burn off some steam!Look at how sweet Peyt is! He even stopped to smile nice for me!!!And then off he was, once again!These two are such great buddies. It is so fun to see them enjoying each other so.Little Sissy just stood off to the side lines out of the way.All the while enjoying a 3 Musketeers bar, of course! This little gal is all about the candy!!!Soon it was time to bundle up and head outside for the horse drawn hay(less) ride but Tootie was not about to let go of her great big bag of goodies!

These two kiddos add such joy and happiness to my life. I don't ever think I could thank God enough for blessing me so!