At the beginning of the month, we met all the grandparents at our favorite mall and took ER to see Santa at his medieval styled castle. It went A LOT better than it did two Christmases ago, when ER was crying hysterically and all three of us ended sitting on Santa's lap to get her to calm down. Scroll down farther to see how that time went, or didn't go depending on how you look at it.
When we walked up to Santa, she did go behind me but with a little coaxing she went up to Santa and gave him a hug. A few moments later she was on her lap and we got some sweet smiles. She also told him very quietly that she wants a
mommy Cinderella doll with all the outfits.
The mall is very elaborately decorated, look at the huge beautiful boat with motorized oars that's right by Santa's castle. ER loves going up and down the glass elevator and watching it.
And the big guy in red's castle, well that's over the top beautiful with all sorts of little fun details all over it.
ER was especially taken with the little elf who peeked out from time to time, from the towers. She dragged all the grandparents over to see him.
She also loved the backside of the castle, where the magical kitchen is. Magical because the bowls spin around and move on their own. ER kept asking me, what are them baking?
Because Santa's castle is so fabulous there can be extremely long waits. Brad had a Wednesday off so we took the opportunity to go during the week when it would be less crowded. On the weekends the wait can be four hours from when you get there; sometimes appointments are all filled up for the day by early afternoon.
Even if we don't see Santa, like we didn't last year, we have been going to this mall for years just to enjoy the decorations. When Brad and I lived out of state we always still made a stop here during our holiday visit home to see the decorations. I love the rich colors and the elaborate decorated trees, I think I sense a photo op!
See what I mean? I turned this photo in a digital card, that I got free from
Becky Higgins. I love the colors and modern design of this one but there are several choices. It was so easy to drop in my photo, and now I can order as many or as few 4X6 copies as I need. They also come in 5X7. I only ordered a few folded photo cards, because I wanted to use the two sets of end of the season bargain Christmas cards sets I've been storing year after year. These will be great to add to those cards so everyone still gets a picture from us.
Our big moment is almost here, waiting on the benches before we're annouced, with Papa, Grammy, and Grandma Norma.
I also added this picture to one of
digital cards I mentioned above, one of the green designs. Once we were with Santa we got six great pictures that we got on CD with the reproduction rights included. We also got each picture developed as a 4X6 and two wallets, it was a pretty nice package and Santa was so patient with ER.
You can't leave a magic castle without some silver coins, right? At the end of our visit, each child gets three silver coins that they can use to "buy" little treats from participating stores at the mall. It's a great fun deciding what to get and gives you something to do while you wait an hour for you photos to be developed. ER ended up with a cookie from Mrs. Fields and two finger puppets from Potterybarn Kids.
It was a really fun holiday outing that we'll all remember for quite different reasons then the time we tried two years ago.
We went and had lunch and then had lots of fun browsing in the stores. ER got a really special treat, a visit to
Build-a-Bear, to get a new outfit for her many animals from there. I am not exaggerating she has several:
Hal and Holly Moose,
Hello Kitty,
Penelope the Pony,
Marge the Husky and her puppy, and the one that started ER's love affair...
Patches the Bear.
Until recently she never wanted them to wear any clothing, she just liked pulling Marge around on her
skateboards. Now she wants them all to be
princesses, so we're slowly building up their wardrobe, using a $7 dollars off a $10 purchase coupon this time. I ♥ coupons!
The other big draw to this mall is that it has beautiful decorations all over. ER's favorite are the fairies. So of course we had to go on the Sky Walk, over the busy street to the other side of the mall.
They are pretty spectaular and glittery. I should have taken one a picture of them from farther away to show you how much room they take up. Part of their beauty is seeing how they fill up the space. What about you? Do you have anywhere you especially like to go see the decorations at?
Earlier this week ER got a Christmas package in the mail from her Great Aunt Cheri and Great Uncle Bill! Inside were 4 beautiful dress up outfits, that she made for ER. Aunt Cheri is a very talented seamstress who has been sewing and quilting since she was very young. She's even had articles published in Threads Magazine. ER is very lucky to have an Aunt who can spoil her with such fanciful creations! Cause it's going to be a very long time before I can make anything like this on my sewing machine, as I am currently working on straight lines that don't end up all wonky.
First up was this fun chef's outfit, it even had "Top Chef" printed on the label in front. Aunt Cheri must know that ER loves to bake and mix up things in the kitchen. We thought the red hot chili peppers were perfect her. She is a Santa Fean after all!
If she gets tired of whipping up Mommy and Daddy things to eat she can fix up all her dolls and animals in her "Top Doc" uniform, with her new medical kit. Aunt Cheri even made a personalized ID tag with her name and picture in it, so she can get into restricted parts of the hospital, I'm sure☺
Next up was my personal favorite just because I thought she looked so cute "flying" around the great room, i.e. running full tilt in a circle☺ The little wings are attached with velcro and have glitter threads embroidered on it. The best was last for this princess fanatic, a lovely traditional styled Cinderella dress! Now ER can look just like her favorite Disney Princess. 
Thank you Aunt Cheri and Uncle Bill! ER LOVES the wonderful Christmas presents you sent her. As you can see we had to try on everything immediately and play in them as soon as we unwrapped each one. It means so much to Brad and I, that Cheri lovingly handmade these dress up outfits for her. We're sure ER will have many hours of fun imaginative playing in them! We all love and miss you, very much♥ 
