Day 18 - Santa's Village

Several words come to mind when I think about last night's activity - chaos...crazy...stressful...overcrowded.  We will for sure re-think the timing of Santa's Village next year.  I'm serious when I say that the entire city of Richardson was there with their kids.  We stayed for an hour and a half and made it through 3 houses.  Three!!!  The lines were so long. 

Here we are taking a rest break from the long walk up to Santa's Village...

Parking was horrendous.

The first house we decided to stop at was the Beary Hospital.  After going inside, the kids stood on a scale and the worker measured their weight and height.  I didn't step into the house until after Hunter was done, but got a quick picture of Char...

She's not really sure what to think!

After that we went to Frosty's House and waited forever...and then some more.  Charlotte lost all control in this line. 

She kept trying to crawl out of our arms, so I finally put her down, and y'all, there has never been a 16 month old to move that fast until that very moment. She ran away into the crowd, so I frantically followed her until I felt like it was getting too dangerous to let her run around with the crazy mobs of people everywhere. When I picked her up, she was livid.  So after we went back to the line, James decided to walk around with her while the rest of us continued to wait...and wait.

I wasn't sure what was going on inside the little house, but I figured it must be pretty good since the line was so long. And it was Frosty's house, so you can only expect fun from that, right?  When we got inside, there were coloring sheets of Frosty...

Once we got into Frosty's house, Hunter picked up one crayon, scribbled for about 3.7 seconds and was done.  I promise I'm not trying to be negative or complain, even though that's exactly what  it sounds like is happening here:)  I really am so thankful that the city puts this on because it's free and fun for the kids and I know it takes a lot of hard work from a lot of people to pull it off. 

The last house was the policemen's safety house.  James, Char, Court, Vanesa and Zack all sat this one out, so it was just H and I.  At one point, he walked over to this sign and posed...

Apparently, he thought it said something more important than "ENTER".  I love that he wanted to pose for a picture, though. 

Hunter was scared of all of the workers dressed up in costumes, especially the ones dressed in animal costumes.  When we got to the door of the saftey house, he saw a man dressed in a fox suit and didn't want to go in.  After all of that waiting, there was no way I was just walking away, so after many unsuccessful attempts by both me and the police officer to coax him over, I finally just sat down next to the police officer and asked Hunter to sit in my lap.  He quickly walked over and sat with us, and we had to get this self-portrait...

I'm sure that police officer was thrilled to have to squeeze so close to us and take the picture himself.

After the safety house, we had to leave because everyone, including me, was begining to have a melt down or panic attack.  On the way out, we did get a picture with the grinch...

Hunter chose not to, but you can't really blame him.  That is one scary grinch.

After all of that stress, it makes me even more thankful when I reflect on the real meaning of this magical time of year.  Not Santa or his reindeer or his village, but Jesus, our Savior, who chose on his own accord to come here to this place just for me and for you.  Oh how he loves us.  Our verses for the night were Matthew 2:3-4 after the Magi have come into Jerusalem stating that they have come to worship the Messiah.  "When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.  When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born."