Snow and Breakfast with Santa

The first weekend in December is SNOWED here in Houston. That's right, SNOWED. We were planning on going to San Antonio that weekend for Breakfast with Santa at my mom's church. Brandon was MAD MAD MAD. He kept saying, "Why are we leaving snow to go see Santa??? That seems backwards!" He really wanted the girls to play in it.


Allison was happy to wear her hat and mittens. I had gotten them out just in case and she was ADAMANT that she wear them as soon as she got dressed. She loved her winter coat too (side note: Brandon made fun of me when I bought the girls winter coats. I found them at a consignment sale for $8 apiece. And they're nice brands - Gymboree and Baby Gap. I was happy they got to use them).


Allison was also going through a phase where she was OBSESSED with the Aboninable Snowman from Rudolph.

I took this while Brandon, Jordan and I were packing for our trip and eating lunch (when the snow started, probably arond 930) before we had to go pick up Allison. Her school declared an early release day because of the weather. (The school district did it and her school follows their calendar since most of the teachers have kids in the school district's schools).
This is what it looked like when we left (around 1145).
Our house
Zonked out on the drive. Jordan was NOT happy. She did NOT like wearing a long sleeve shirt, a hoodie and her winter coat. She looked like the Michelin Tire Man (or the Marshmellow Man) in her coat (yes, it's "winter white"). We went to Jazzercise that morning and dropped Allison off at school. So I tried to be the good mother and bundle her up (since it was SNOWING). She was not having it. She learned how to unzip her coat and get it off (no joke). Allison was drooling and snoring. Guess all the excitement of the snow wore her out! The drive was interesting. For a while, we went through areas where the snow wasn't sticking at all. Then when we got to Katy, it was sticking pretty good. By the time we were in Sealy, it was gone. And the folks in San Antonio were very upset that they didn't get any.

We got there Friday night and played with the girls while my mom and dad went to her work Christmas party. When the girls went to bed, we played Wii. (Brandon is a REALLY bad Wii bowler....more on that later).

Saturday morning - it was time for Santa!!

We got there a little early so we could visit with friends. We were in line for pancakes when Santa made his appearance. Allison nearly THREW her plate on the floor so she could RUN to him. She was the first kid over to him and was in HEAVEN. It was so cute. We finally convinced her that we had to eat first and then we'd go stand in line so she could see him.

A lot of other kids their ages wouldn't go to Santa or wouldn't smile for pictures. My kids do not have that problem.

They were both saying, "CHEESE!" super loudly. I think everyone in the hall turned to watch and probably about half went, "Ohhh!"

Jordan loved the candy cane (although she kept calling it a lollipop).

After everyone had seen Santa, he went up to the front and called all the children to go with him so he could deliver the blessing over the children. Allison pushed her way to be right behind him.

And stand right next to him and hold his hand.

She did let go for a minute while they sang "Happy Birthday" to this girl. (Side note: Jordan is obsessed with the happy birthday song. She says, "Happy Day to you!" She now think that Santa sings it).

After Breakfast with Santa, we went downtown to the Dream Factory's Christmas party to meet Tagen, the Wish Child I made the scrapbook for. He's very sweet! (And his mom and sisters were really nice too). They kept telling us that we could stay, that Santa was coming to visit. But after seeing how Allison was with Santa, I didn't want her to monopolize the party and take away something from those kids.

In the car on the way back. My dad gave us his DVD player (since the one we had was not so good). This is what happens when you put in "Lady and the Tramp" into a DVD player in the car with 2 dogs.

Isn't this cool? And the straps/bag were all included. It's AWESOME. And it didn't freeze on us ONCE on the way back. The old one froze probably 8 times in a 3 hour drive. And would do it EVERY time. (Not that we're knocking it. It was free too. Nathan gave us his old one when he got a new one).

So that was our whirlwind trip to San Antonio. It was fun! (Even though we were there for less than 24 hours!)