A Visit With Santa

Each year, Santa makes a special visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house - it is definitely a highlight for Olivia, her cousins (and their parents and grandparents) and some of her friends from school.  This year, we were very excited to have Joe Sung Min be part of the celebration.  Joe isn't always a fan of big crowds or lots of noise -- and since there were going to be 15 or 16 kids running around, there would surely be lots of commotion.  And surprisingly, Joe LOVED it.  When he wasn't crawling after his sister and her friends, he would safely sit and watch everything go down.  This boy doesn't miss a trick.  He laughed, he smiled, he charmed the crowd and was very comfortable with so many people, many of which this was the first time he had seen them.

Everything was nice and peaceful as Grandma led the kids in singing Christmas songs and then it happened.  This big man in a red suit came in.  The kids and adults cheered and said hello to Santa.  Santa stopped on his way in to say hello to Joe and to welcome him to the party.  He wasn't quite sure what to think about what was happening.

 
One by one, Santa spoke with each of the children, finding out what was on their Christmas list (a few parents were surprised to hear "a dog" mentioned).  Santa stopped to tell everyone that Olivia wrote him a very special letter -- one for her little brother Joseph.  In it, she asked him to bring Joe some Tupperware and baby toys.  How sweet is that?  Here is her letter:

Santa asked if Joseph could come to sit on his lap.  His reaction was just about what we expected.  Luckily, his big sister was on hand to make everything better.

Next, Santa reached into his sack and started handing out presents to all the girls and boys.  Joe felt more comfortable in his Papa's arms, but didn't want to get too close to the man in the red suit.  Truth be told, as excited as Liv was that Santa was *right here*, she didn't want to get too close either...

It will definitely be interesting to see what happens next year!