Visiting Santa

Last week, MadHatter and Stinkerbell ran an errand with B, which happened to be at the mall.  Very close to where the big guy in the red suit was located.  With his sleigh and some reindeer.  A snowman and blowing snow.  All of it INSIDE of a huge, inflated snow globe.  Jaws dropped and the pleading began.  But he didn't have time to stop so B promised them that we would come back next week.  Or today as that works out.

And since their encounter last week, I have been hearing about it almost non-stop.  About how we are going to go get inside the snow globe, sit with Santa, and tell him all the things we want for Christmas.  INSIDE A SNOW GLOBE!  And Stinkerbell kept telling me that this year she would sit on Santa's lap and not be afraid.  And that she would be good.  And she would not cry.  And, and, and...  But I also know my Stinkerbell, so I told her that it was great that she would be sitting on Santa's lap this year, but that if she didn't feel it at the moment, she didn't have to be so brave because Santa would understand.

MadHatter was just so excited to see the Big Guy, up close and personal.  This is the first year she really gets it all and is very inquisitive.  She asks a million questions and is trying to process it all.  She kept reminding me that the Santa we would see at the mall wouldn't be the REAL Santa, but just one of his helpers.  It would be very hard for the real Santa to get away from home right now she told me.  He is pretty busy, you know.

This morning they couldn't wait to get dressed, brush their teeth and get going.  But we still had to wait a bit because even though it is almost Christmas, stores here don't open until 11 am.  And we needed to get to the store first because to see this Santa, you had to turn in a receipt from a mall store that says you spent 20.000 CLP or more (about $40).  With two birthday parties for MadHatter this week, I was going to spend that anyway, so it was a wash.  But I still had to have a store that was open to be able to buy the presents.

Finally, receipt in hand we went to sign up (yep, you sign up to see Santa here - no just waiting in line).  Our time was just after noon so we had to kill a couple of minutes.  Thankfully, it was only a couple of minutes.  I think the girls would have burst if they had to wait any longer than that.

Then, all of a sudden, it was our turn.  They unzipped the outside zipper and ushered us to the stairs.  They zipped us back up on the outside and unzipped us from the inside (they have to keep that inflated snow globe inflated after all).  It was so cool inside.  There were tiny little Styrofoam pellets swirling around everywhere.  We walked through the trees, said hi to Frosty and there he was...Santa.  Sitting in his sleigh, waiting for the girls to come have a seat.  Stinkerbell wasn't smiling, but she wasn't crying either.  She let MadHatter take the lead and sit down first, and then she went over and sat on MadHatter's lap (close enough).

 They both told Santa what they would like and he asked them a few questions about if they had been good.  Pretty routine.  And that is when it changed from the routine, which threw Stinkerbell.  The girls had to stand on the seat of the sled to get their picture taken from outside the globe.  Which meant Santa having to touch Stinkerbell and lift her onto the sleigh.  She just had enough...

But she pulled it together for the official picture that they give to you  - for free but you kind of paid for it with that whole receipt thing.

But all in all it was a fun experience.  And our first in a Snow Globe!

As we were walking away, MadHatter says to me "Mom, maybe the REAL Santa did make it after all."

"You don't think that was one of his helpers, Mad?"

"Nope, I really, really think that was Santa.  Wow, I got to talk to Santa"

And that made every bit of it Magical.