Visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus - 2011

It has become our tradition to visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus on the day after Thanksgiving. Before we packed up and headed to Grandma's house, the boys created their first Christmas 'wish lists.' We gave each of the boys their own Toys R Us catalog and they selected their favorite items for their 'wish lists.' The put the items on a piece of paper and we planned to take these with us for our visit with Santa. As you can see from Jared's list and the Barbie items included, there was no parental influence into the content of the 'wish lists.'

When we arrived to visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus, there was no line! This meant we did not have to wait and we could spend as much time as we wanted with Santa and Mrs. Claus. The boys, armed with their lists, walked right up to Santa and Mrs. Claus to hand over their lists and point out their favorite items.

The excitement for Christmas has defiantly spread to the boys. While they started to understand the joy of Christmas last year, they REALLY get it this year. They were excited to see Santa and they are eager to get their presents. When you ask them what they want for Christmas, their responses are as follows:

Wesley - "Pirate Ship"

Jared - "Zombie Lab"

Andrew - "Everything"

Santa is still debating whether the Zombie Lab will find it's way under the tree but he really wants it. As a matter of fact, all of the boys have wanted this at some point. I love the innocence and truth in Andrew's response. He really does want everything! When watching TV, he asserts over and over, 'I want that' 'I want that' with every commercial that is shown. Actually, he ran out of room on the front of his 'wish list' and had to start attaching some of the luxury items to the back of his paper. When he was talking to Santa, he made sure he pointed out the items on the back of the paper (Two electric cars). I am pretty certain that these items will not find their way under the tree.

With the boys so focused on what they are going to get for Christmas, we will need to make sure we take them Christmas shopping for their gifts to give again this year. Last year, we took them to the Dollar Tree and they each purchased something to give everyone. We hope this helped them begin to understand that the joy of Christmas is also about giving and not just receiving.

After they visited with Santa and Mrs. Claus, it was time to take our picture....

Once we finished taking our picture, we spent a few extra minutes showing Santa and Mrs. Claus the pictures the boys took with them in 2008, 2009 and 2010. They seemed to really enjoy seeing the progression of the boys over the years. I can't believe how grown up the boys look in this years photo and that we have already taken four pictures with Santa and Mrs. Claus.

With this visit, the 2011 Christmas season is officially underway!

Take care,