Visiting Santa Claus 2012, Seeing Christmas Lights and a HUGE Meltdown

This week I wanted to focus on some of those Christmas traditions that needed to get done.  First on the list . . . visiting Santa Claus.

Last year we went to Bass Pro Shop for their Winter Wonderland.  Bass Pro does a great job of not only having Santa Claus there but also a carousel and a few games to play.  Unfortunately, the one down-side to going to Bass Pro is because it is absolutely free (even the picture), they really don't take a lot of care in getting a good, mom-approved picture.  Thank Goodness I always have a camera handy. . .

 

Of all the Santa pictures he's taken, I think this one may be one of my favorites.  I think it is for sentimental reasons as I do believe that this may be one of the last years that Kanin believes

  
After playing in the Winter Wonderland, we decided to go look at the big fish aquarium.  Apparently, this was NOT something that Gracie wanted to do because one of the biggest tantrums that I have ever witnessed followed.  This child cried screamed her ever-loving head off the from the time we got into the store until we got home.

Finally, after locking making her go to her room and the rest of us having dinner, we thought we might TRY to go look at the Christmas lights in one of the local parks.  All of the kids had on their pajamas, I made everyone hot chocolate, and Gaga loaded up our favorite Christmas songs on the iPod.  

As we got close to the park we noticed a lot of people walking toward the direction of the park.  I really didn't think anything about it until we got closer and closer.  There were people everywhere.  Cars were parked all along the streets and hundreds of bundled up people were walking toward the park.  When we finally got up to the entrance and found out that it was WALKERS' NIGHT.  Are you kidding me?!?!?  You can imagine what happened next (see above picture).  

By this time, my Christmas spirit had been thrown out the window and all I wanted to do was go home and drink away the headache.  Luckily, though, we did hit a couple of good subdivisions with great lights that somewhat appeased the kids.

All Kanin kept saying was,  "Now, what are the odds that the night we pick to go look at the night is the night they only let walkers in."   After the evening we had, I'd say they were pretty high at that point.

Finally, last night we loaded everyone up in the car again sans the pajamas and the hot chocolate (we used it all the night before) and we were able to enjoy the lights.

 I hope your holiday season is just as chaotic as mine has been and I hope that we are all able to look back on the chaos one day and appreciate it.