Christmas All Around Town

Yesterday we went to the "Cookies with Santa" event at the kids' school. This is a fun event the school puts on and the kids loved it when we went during Tanner's kindergarten year. 

There are stations set up all over the cafeteria for different activities and you just pick and choose what you want to do. 

The kids wanted to write their letters to Santa first so we went to that station right away. 

Then they each made a bag of hot cocoa mix. 

Then they called our number to visit with Santa.
This year, they were moving kids through so fast that they kids didn't really get to talk to him. I didn't even have time to get my camera out before they were pushing us out the door. But the school sent this one home with the kids- Sadly the photographer cut off half of Bailey's face. Oh well- it's still a cute picture. 

And Benson was obsessed with Santa's beard. He kept trying to pull on it. We were all cracking up. 

After visiting Santa, we made some  reindeer food. Benson just chilled happily in his car seat. He's such a good kid. 

Here are the older three making their reindeer food. Bailey made sure to add extra glitter so Santa would be able to see the sparkles  and stop at our house. 

Then we decorated sugar cookies and the kids promptly devoured them. 

We also had snowball fights and listened to the vice principal read Christmas stories in the library.
We were worn out after wards, but we had a great time. The kids were all so good and I'm grateful that it's getting easier to take all four kids out by myself. 

Then today we got to go to Daddy's office and see Santa. This is our favorite Santa interaction each year. At Sam's Corp, Santa really talks to the kids. He calls them by name and asks them about our elves, Buddy and Sparkle. He asks the kids about the toys he brought on the previous Christmas and if they liked them. It's really such a cute interaction. I LOVE IT!

I love this shot of Bailey trying to think of all the things she wants for Christmas.
She asked for a "diary, a secret songbird, a hatchimal and American girl doll furniture."
I hope Santa can make one of those wishes come true. 

Tanner believes in Santa with his whole heart and he loved that Santa asked him about the transformer he brought him last year.
This year Tanner asked for a "Star Wars comic book".
That's a pretty easy request. 

I was worried Tuck wouldn't want to sit on Santa's lap, but Santa quickly won Tucker over and had him smiling in no time. 

This year Tucker asked Santa for a "rainbow pen".
I'm not really sure what that is, so I hope Santa can figure it out. 

And true to form again, Benson loved Santa's beard. It was cracking us up.
He was so happy and just smiled non-stop at Santa. 

According to Santa, these little imps are all on the "NICE" list still, let's hope they can hold out until Christmas. 

After seeing Santa, we drove downtown to mail our Santa letters.
The kids wanted to make sure we got them mailed after talking to him. They didn't want him to forget what they told him they wanted. 

So we once again mailed our letters at the "North Pole Express".
And we should get letters back from Santa in a couple weeks. 

Oh and we stopped by the square to see Santa's sleigh. This is another favorite of ours. Something about this sleigh is so magical. Next year we want to visit Santa, while he's at this sleigh. We didn't have time this year. 

Christmas time is in full swing around here and we are loving it. We are loving our "Light the World" challenges and getting to spend lots of time together!