The Ho Ho Man

The CTCRM Famly Christmas event was so nice.  It is an event that requires a ticket way way way early and now I know why.  They put so much thought time and effort into this  party that it had to be planned for quite a while.  Here is the fam as we first got there.  Love that Daddy is wearing the crown from his Christmas cracker!  Sophia is wearing the dress and jacket she recieved the day before in a box from her Great Aunt Patty.  She has not shown so much interest in clothes for a long time, but when she opened the box and saw the dress and then opened the other box to find a pink sparkly jacket she was nearly overcome with excitement!  Two seconds later she was putting on her new clothes and refused to take them off until we insisted she put on pajamas and go to bed.  I think she would have slept in those clothes had we allowed it.  The poor kid was sweating with the warm jacket on, but she would not even consider taking it off!  Great Aunt Patty has some sort of magic when it comes to picking out clothes for Miss Sophia!

There was a lady painting faces at the event.  All the other kids were walking around with butterflies and whatnot.  My crazy daughter told the lady that she wanted to be a snow flake princess.  The face painting lady did a wonderful job with that rather abstract request.  Sophia was tickled pink with her face. I think she looks like a ballerina from swan lake or something.

Hank was pretty excited to see, "The Ho Ho Man."  He was nervous and would not get too close, but Daddy had his six and that made everything a lot easier.  He even answered Ho Ho's questions and said thank you.  I think the poor kid was rather in awe of the big man in red.  I am pretty sure that Santa was a bootneck somewhere in his long history!

My big girl didn't need anyone to coddle her through the meeting of Santa.  She had spent the night before making him a card so he would know how much she loved him.  She colored all over it and wrote, "To Santa, Love Sophia."  on the card in her crazy four year old hand writing.  Santa was so totally sweet and took his time reading the card and everything.  He was a the best Santa ever!

When asked what she wanted for Christmas she told him she wanted a toy puppy.  He asked if there was anything else she would like and she told him that she only needed one present.  I am not sure if she meant it or was just trying to be sweet and play the role.  Regardless, it was so sweet I couldn't stand it. 

There was also a magician and a balloon making guy at the event.  I am not sure if you can tell from her face, but that was one happy little girl.  The reason there are not so many pictures of Hank is that once he discovered the bouncy castles, bouncy slides, mats, rope swings etc in the gym it was REALLY hard to get him to leave.  Luckily some of our friends were hanging out in the gym with their kids and were happy to watch Hank and his gymnastic feats of craziness! 

The party went for four hours and the kids were so happily entertained, fed, and happy that there wasn't even one single melt down.  Now this could have been because there was a certain man in red running around the area, or it could have been because they had so much fun there was no time for getting upset!

The camp did one of the most amazing jobs with their Christmas event that I have ever seen.  It was so well organized and the attention to detail made everything just perfect.  I wish we were going to be here for another Christmas!