Ho Ho Hear We Come!

Today we set off bright and early to see the Legendary Santa in Richmond. It was a full car with Lolli, Poppa, and Mimi joining us. Avery slept late, and with us leaving way before nap time, I knew she wouldn't sleep. She did great in the car and seemed to enjoy me beside her and Lolli and Mimi behind her. The grandparents went in to hold our spot in line while Ned and I got Avery dressed. I knew she had gone to the bathroom and was very concerned when I felt a wet bottom, because she had on her tights under her pants. It wasn't the disaster that it could have been, and somehow the tights turned out better than the pants. After a quick cleanup on my folded down 3rd seat, she was in her dress and ready to go. When we joined everyone in line, the sign said an hour wait from that point. The line didn't look bad, and an hour sounded much better than the hour and a half we waited last year. And, I was happy to see on the TV that it was the "good" Santa that I saw for many years. While we waited, Avery got busy with a snack and some people watching.



Our wait was nowhere near and hour and soon it was time to go into Santa Land. Both years that we've taken Avery, I've gotten a little teary as we walked in. All I've ever wanted to do is be a mom, and this is one of the traditions I imagined carrying out long before Avery arrived. I visited the Legendary Santa each year until I was a senior in high school. Until 1990, he resided in the Miller and Rhoads department store and had been there since 1936. There you could see Santa come down the chimney and visit with the Snow Queen and Bruce the Spruce, a singing and talking tree. After sitting on Santa's lap, we ate in the Tea Room, where Santa would come in, drink a full glass of milk with no breaths but lots of load gulps, and eat reindeer cake. Things changed when the store closed in 1990, but Santa has been somewhere in Richmond each year. His permanent home is now in the Children's Museum, where he still comes down the chimney several times a day, feet just a swinging, after checking his reindeer on the roof. Tea with Santa is also offered in a downtown hotel. We missed him coming down the chimney this year but will definately be trying to catch him next year.

Here we are talking to the Snow Queen before Santa said, "Hi, Avery! Come on over!"



As you can see, we had no tears! Avery checked out Santa and all the pretty lights in the room.

They snapped the picture right away, then of course she smiled and smiled.

Lolli got a great picture of Avery giving Santa a sweet smile though. She didn't seem bothered in the least to be talking to him. I was shocked!

We finished so quickly that we checked out the train display. My dad had the neatest one set up in his farm office when I was little with buildings, roads, cars, and a sawmill that sawed logs. We used to go play with the trains on Sunday afternoon and I would drink a grape soda. I would love to think that Avery's interest today would cause Poppa to pull those trains back out.

We left and traveled to Short Pump mall for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. We all ate so much that we had no room for yummy cheesecake. We only visited one store after lunch because it's an outdoor mall and was too cold today. If I don't pop in Janie and Jack, it must be cold! Avery was falling asleep with her head up before we ever got on the highway and slept all the way home. What a wonderful day! My only complaint is that it went by too fast!