Visiting Santa

Jackie's first visit to Santa this year happened with Nana and Papa during a trip to the mall.  From what I hear it was pretty cute.  She chatted with him for quite a while.  But they didn't have a picture taken of her.  Then whenever I asked Jackie if she'd like to visit Santa again she had no interest.  She'd say, I already did that!

Then her friend Emilia invited her to join in a visit to a local house that puts on this big Christmas celebration every year, 6 nights a week, for two weeks.  They deck the house like an amusement park and they invite Santa to visit with the kids.  Then every kid gets a little toy.  Then we can walk around the decorated areas of the house and yard.  Then hot chocolate and cookies.  All free.  Crazy!  So we went.  At first Jackie said again that she didn't want to talk to him.  But when we said she could have a toy afterwards she said okay.

I should also mention that she has asked me quite a few times recently in Santa is "real".  She's only 4.  But the kid is a sponge and she picks up on some of the nuances of conversations going on around her. She's also asking a lot of questions about what's "real" as she's sorting the world into categories.  Like, is that person on TV real, is that story real, are princesses real.