Santa Sighting

On the last morning of school before the holiday, Jackie told me she was planning to meet Gigi and Fran (Grandmother to Maya & Mason) to go to Paradise Pond, see Santa, and make cookies. I knew they would probably do that but I hadn't talked to Mom about it; it was too crazy a week. But I was still surprised to find out that Gigi was planning to go see Santa at her old school instead of Carmen and Gabe's school (maybe a mile away). She retired there two years ago but still has a lot of friends there.
I was thinking Paloma would get to do this with C & G; I was pretty sure she didn't remember it from last year and I would have liked to have been there to get pictures since it was Gabe's kindergarten year and all. So I sent Carmen's camera with Jackie and she took Paloma to their school instead.
Jackie wasn't too confident but I was thrilled to see all of the pictures!
Paloma got to be with Gabriel (and meet an elf!)
see Rudolph up-close-and-personal (Gabe said, "Frosty and Rudolph were just costumes.")
and here's Gabe with his friend Ryals. Yes, Gabriel is wearing p.j.s. The school told them to wear p.j.s two days in a row! C & G were excited to finally get to wear their new Christmas pajamas.
Here's Carmen with one of her friends, Kelsey.
And here's Paloma getting to give Frosty a hug! They also saw Santa; all of them came in a helicopter. The district has been doing this every year for a LONG time.

A few days later, Paloma asked me, "I saw Frosty and Rudolph and Santa, but where was Mary?"

We don't make a big deal of Santa around here, so I was glad that she understood that amidst the fun there was something missing!