The Magic of...SANTA!!!

We usually go to the mall to see Santa the first week of December. Then I heard about Santa coming to the Depot in Monticello. I had heard about it but knew nothing about it. I asked a few friends and no one had ever been to see him there. Then my neighbor any my good friend both told me how wonderful it was and we MUST do it. My girlfriend told me the line can get so long since Santa likes to spend 10-15 minutes with each family. My first thought was "how on earth can he spend that long with each child...we only spend 2 minutes on the guy's lap at the mall before the next kid is eager to get a turn.

So, we decided to go early and get in line...20 minutes early just to be safe. We were the first ones there. The place was dark. Brian walked up to see if we could get in line and Santa waved at him from inside that it would just be another minute. Moments later, Santa opened the door to the depot himself and gave us a very special greeting. We thought he was just leading us to the line to wait 20 minutes but instead he insisted we come right in and have a seat. The Depot has two rooms. I pictured everything open with kids in line like at the mall...
no way! One room was for the waiters and the other room was for each family to be with Santa by themselves. He closed the door and in his little area was his tree and table, a book, a bible, a Nativity, and notebook, and some coloring sheets. We just hung out! We all couldn't believe how intimate it was and he was just hanging out with us. We were so proud of Mara since this was the closest she had ever been to Santa without screaming.

He got out his notebook and asked Alaric to sign it. Alaric was so proud to write his name on the line super small in his best handwriting and write his age too.

Mara and Daddy got really close to Santa to write her name too.

After a long conversation with Alaric ( as you can guess) and all of us singing Jingle Bells and Amara singing ABCs all by herself, Santa wanted to talk to Mara. She immediately got nervous...not tears-just holding tight to Mama. Santa, without a care in the world, just kept talking to her and listening to her and waiting for her. It was precious.

and she loosened up some too. She told Santa she wanted an Elmo Umbrella and a jumprope for Christmas all by herself. No tears.

Then he gave both kids a beautiful picture to color ( the picture and the lettering our hand drawn and I assume since the Santa in the picture looks just like our Santa, he might have drawn it himself).

Instead of just handing it to them and saying goodbye ( as now people were beginning to arrive and watch through the window), he slowly got out his notebook and rewrote the kids names on the bottom of the sheet. He also wrote a little note.

For Al, he wrote, "you make me glad to be Santa! Ho Ho Ho"

For Amara, "you have a beautiful singing voice. I love Songs. ~Santa"Amara didn't want her picture with Santa but Alaric did. He then stood and walked us to the door, opened it for us and watched us leave. Then opened the inside door and invited the next family to come into his room. It was amazing. Rerally Magical. i've never had so much time with Santa and I've never had such an experience with Santa where he really tried to get to know the kids. It was great.

Then another magical thing happened...the kids came home and wanted to color their sheets. they sat at the dining room table and asked to listen to Christmas music. For almost 20 minutes- TWENTY minutes, the house was filled with the sound of Christmas music and happy children content with coloring. It was beautiful

As were their works of art. It was the first time Alaric has ever even tried to stay in the lines and Amara's was so colorful and thoughtful!

They both look great with our other Christmas crafts from years past on our cabinets!

But I'm not done....

As we were lining up for school this morning out in the cold, who should walk up but SANTA CLAUS!!!!! The kids started jumping and yelling his name. And the first thing Santa said was, "I remember you kids. You were the very first two who came to see me last night!" he remembered. Sweet!

Theres more....

At lunch, I got the mail and in the mail were two letters from Santa claus to the kids!!!!Each with their names and everything

The postmark was even from Santa Claus, IN! They kids couldn't believe it!

The letters told the kids to be good and remember to use their manners and to be kind. He said he knew just what they wanted ( Transformers and Elmo) and was proud of them for the work they were doing to learn new things ( writing Al's last name and counting to 10 for Mar). The kids couldn't believe it!

What a joyful, MAGICAL day it was filled with Santa and his spirit!