Day 11 Playing Hooky!

Andrew, Aaron, Rori, James, Liam, and Brendan (Caleb was in the stroller)

Last year we went to see Santa on the first day of Advent and I kept the kids home from school. I thought it could be an annual tradition, but this year December 1 was a Saturday, and I hate crowds. There was no way we were going that day. Plus, part of the fun is getting to ditch school! We waited until they had Santa there during the school day and I pulled Rori out when Liam was finished with his school. We were able to coordinate with Leslie and her boys and Liam and Brendan loved getting to go with their "best buddies".

I love this Santa! He really does a great job!

We went to the same hunting store that we went to last year. They have a fabulous Santa and the decor is gorgeous! It really looks like a Winter Wonderland. The kids all told Santa what they would like this year and then they moved on to the other activities. New this year was the carousel.

 The kids thought it was really cool and rode it twice. Which meant I rode it twice because Brendan was too small to ride it by himself. Fortunately it didn't go so fast that I got nauseous, because in my old age, that happens.

Next it was on to pretend riding on the ATV's. For some reason, the kids think these are the coolest things ever!

Next we wrote letters to Santa. They had a mailbox you could drop your letter into and he would email you back.

This was serious business--that's my pretty friend Leslie on the side. I don't know how she has time to do her hair with 4 kids, she has not yet joined my daily ponytail club

Even for Brendan

Liam wrote two notes

We had a great time and I am glad we were able to keep it as part of our tradition!