Breakfast with Santa

Last Saturday, we attended the Breakfast With Santa in South Pasadena with the Woltil Family.  It was such a fun morning! 

Rebecca has mixed feelings about Santa.  She was fine with him last year. Then the first time she saw him this year, she hid her face from him.  Then when he arrived at the Chino Hills tree lighting, she wanted to wait in the line of 300 kids to see him.  So I thought the breakfast event would be exhilarating for her.  The day before, she told me she wanted to stay at Grandma's instead of going with us.  Since we'd paid $15 for each of the tickets, I informed her that was not an option.  There may have been some kind of guilt trip involved, but eventually she decided that spending the morning with Addie and Lucas and eating pancakes couldn't be all bad.  I had also promised that she didn't have to sit in Santa's lap.  So by the time we got there, she was actually excited.

They had a very nice breakfast with bagels, muffins, pancakes, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, fruit, and pastries.  While we were all eating breakfast, Santa and Mrs. Claus arrived.  Still skeptical, she wasn't jumping up and down to see Santa, but she was quite excited that Mrs. Claus was accompanying him.  Midway through breakfast, she decided she wanted to go up to see Santa, so we dashed into the line.  She was stoked to see him, until we got to the front of the line, and then she again proclaimed she wasn't going to sit on his lap.  Rebecca did, however, enjoy talking to Santa...at arm's length! 

This was as close to a picture with Santa as we got from Rebecca!  There were a few of Rebecca, Santa, and Mommy, and Daddy that were our "official" pictures that are being mailed to us from Pasadena.  Those may be hilarious. 

Rebecca asked Mrs. Claus eagerly if she could take her picture with her.  Rebecca's clear - she knows Mrs. Claus is probably the real brains behind the operation.  She's the one who keeps the show running, clearly!

There were also several arts and crafts stations for the kids, where they decorated cookies, snowflakes, and Christmas trees.

 Then, there was a "puppet show" (it was actually marionnettes, not puppets, but whatever).  I was rather annoyed at this activity, because the rules were that the kids had to stay seated.  Of course, some started standing, which prevented others from seeing.  I get that they get excited, but that's when their parents should have reminded them to sit.  Instead, many parents did nothing.  A particularly annoying family had four children who believed they should be the only ones who could see the stage.  The mom was in a fog of Botox, I think. 

The show itself was just a bit weird.  I was skeeved out by a couple of the marionnettes that I thought looked like they'd been poisoned with arsenic...but it was a good show. 

 

It was a really fun morning, and I think both families enjoyed it!