A visit to Santa Claus

My mom pointed out to me that I didn't blog about taking the kids to see Santa a week or so ago. We told Blythe Santa was making an appearance in Blacksburg to take orders for Christmas, so she had no choice but to sit on his lap and tell him what she wanted otherwise he wouldn't know what to bring and may bring nothing at all.

For Blythe's first Christmas, we went to the mall to see Santa. Going to the mall is a rip though because they won't even let you take your own pictures and they charge you an arm and a leg for a 5x7 and 2 3x5's (and who even uses 3x5's?).

So once a year, on the day of the "famous" Blacksburg Christmas parade, Santa makes an appearance at the Lyric Theatre (an old 1 screen theatre in downtown Blacksburg that still runs new movies today). I looked online and it said Santa would be there 4:30-7:00. So we picked the kids up from day care and headed over. Just after the people in front of us went in, a lady came and put a dinky little sign up that said basically "no more people can see Santa". We were like, "what's up with that?" Since we were next in line, she made eye contact with us and told us Santa had to go to the tree lighting and to the parade. My Bitchy McGee self started up with "online it said he'd be here until 7:00, blah, blah, blah". Here sign was so small that people were still coming in and getting in line and no one was turning them away, so we thought screw it, we'll just get in line to because I sure as hell don't want to go see him at the mall. Anyway, people kept coming and people kept being seen by Santa, so eventually the lady took the sign down. Maybe there was a second Santa who went to the tree lighting and the parade? So lots of kids didn't want to sit on Santa's lap and were crying, but our kids were on a mission to communicate "baby, yellow castle, and legos", so they got the job done and we were out of there.

So on to the second part of the story....

We are members at the Blacksburg Country Club. Yes, we are rich young yuppies who hang out at "the club". No, not really. Braden got a free membership when he was promoted to Associate Head Coach. It's not quite free though. We have a $30 minimum we have to spend on food each month (and alcohol doesn't count toward that minimum). That's no problem at all in the summer when the pool and snack bar are open, but the rest of the year we have to remember to go eat there once a month (and it's 15 minutes away so it's not exactly down the street). In Blacksburg, 15 minutes = clear on the other side of town. So we saw in the newsletter that there was a "Santa Brunch" on Dec. 14. Was $14 for each adult, free for kids under 5. So that would take care of our $30 minimum (or just about....yes, I can add). So I called and RSVP'd for that.

We got there and they had tables all set up and our table had our name on it. There were probably about 15-20 tables in all. And Santa was just sitting over there waiting for someone to come see him. Stark contract to the mall and the Lyric where people are pushing and shoving to go see him. After we finished our meal, we went over to say hi to Santa. We told Blythe she should ask him how her baby, yellow castle, and Legos are coming along. It was crazy because as soon as we sat her on his leg, she started going on asking Santa how he was doing, how his elves were doing, how were her toys coming along, telling him she actually wanted a yellow baby, but she already had a yellow baby, so mom and dad said she might want a blue baby instead, and that she used to want a car for Christmas, but then she decided she wanted legos instead because daddy said elves can't make cars, and that she wanted a yellow castle just to throw everyone off because really, where can one find a yellow castle....

See:

Just kidding, actually, she didn't say all of those things. She of course acted very shy, but did finally tell him the 3 things she wanted and asked him to say "ho, ho, ho". Ethan also sat on Santa's lap and seemed quite mesmerized by the white beard:

After they were done, Santa gave them each a wrapped present. Each said "To: Holloways From: Santa". Blythe got the "Cootie" game and Ethan got a stuffed teddy bear. So I have to give a big shout out to Blacksburg Country Club. They actually took time to see how old our kids were and buy age appropriate toys, wrap them, and address them to us. Made us feel like the privileged, rich people that we are not.

And next year we know not to bother with the mall or the Lyric and just sign up for Brunch with Santa.