U Club Party

Each Christmas we go to the family party at the University Club to, among other Christmas-y activities, see Santa. Sophia was studying pictures of Santas past that I bring out at Christmas and she pointed out which Santas were "fake" and which were "real".

"I can tell by the beard. The big curly beard is DEFINITELY fake. The real beard must be the real Santa".

So I explained to her that Santa has helpers who do know him and report back what the children ask for. She seemed to be ok with that. She told me that if it was not a real Santa she would still act like he was real and not let on that she knew he wasn't the real deal.

The Santa this year was "real" fortunately.


Last year Rick and I had to jump in the shot at the last minute when Ella started melting down:


They had a menagerie of animals that Katie and Ceci were obsessed with. They saw the sheep and started yelling "BAA! BAA!" I think the animals were all a bit frightened but the girls were not intimidated in the least. Katie even tried scaling the fence to get inside and play with her animal friends.
Here they are "petting" the monkey. It was more like "squeezing" they were so excited. I kept having to say "gentle...gentle":
And a little too close for comfort with a turkey:
There was a cookie decorating station where I realized Katie was taking scoops of sprinkles and putting the spoon in her mouth and eating them straight:


And what would a Christmas party be without face painting? Ella got a Christmas tree and Sophia went with the popular Christmas unicorn: