A couple months back my Dad sent me an email saying that our family friend who is a real beard Santa would like to set up a time to meet with the kids during the Christmas Season. I called up Santa Al and we set the date for December 5th. Usually Santa Al is SUPER busy during the Christmas Season as you can imagine, but this year he had canceled all his engagements due to a cancer diagnosis earlier in the year. The doctors were sure that his beard would never grow back, but God had other plans! Not only has his beard grown back, but health wise he's doing better than they expected. This year he's been doing charity work as Santa. It was so wonderful to get a whole evening with Santa all to ourselves!
We decided to have the event at my parents since there house is a Christmas wonderland! When Santa first came in he gave the kids these cute mini stockings with candy canes in them.
Our kids know that we are really Santa for them, but they also understand that Santa is based off St. Nicholas and that he was a real man that loved to give to others and Santa Al is doing just that. First we had dinner and then we got the kids dressed in their nice Christmas clothes for pictures with Santa.
My Dad had it all set up with a chair next to the tree.
The kids have all seen Santa Al over the years so none of them were scared at all.
Santa Al's Santa suit is so wonderful...he truly looks like Santa Claus!
Not sure what happened with the lighting in this picture, but it still looks great! Zeke was a little apprehensive at first, but then he ran right over and sat on Santa Al's lap!
This is the picture of the kids and Santa Al that we included in our Christmas card this year! After pictures Santa had another special treat for each of the kids...presents!!! My Dad was sitting on the other side of the living room and the kids were opening their presents towards me so I took pictures with my phone. I have since come to the conclusion that I'm going to start bringing my real camera with me everywhere. My phone will not take good pictures if the kids are moving around at all! So frustrating!
Santa talked with each of the kids first. He read the name on the first present and then he asked Owen if he was Owen. How was Santa supposed to know he was really Owen? It was so funny hearing Owen try to explain to him that he was Owen. Daddy happened to have a photo id for each of the school kids so they could prove that they actually were who they said they were! So funny!
Owen got a LEGO construction set with a truck and a Port-A-Potty. It is so funny! It has a cute little toilet seat inside and a roll of toilet paper!
Ella gave Santa Al her photo ID as well.
As you can see she was pretty excited about her present!
She got an Elsa doll with a dress that matched hers!
Zeke man was the only one that didn't have any photo ID, but Santa Al let that one slide!
Zeke got Marshall from Paw Patrol...his favorite character!
Jack and Santa Al talked the longest. He asked Jack to sing a Christmas song and he actually did. Super cute!
Jackson got a LEGO Jurassic World set! We had just watched all the movies with the kids so the LEGO set made total sense to him. It's the helicopter that crashes into the Aviary...the coolest part is it shoots a net out trying to capture one of the dinosaurs!
I was just totally shocked that Santa Al got all the kids such spot on gifts! I was pretty sure that Ga-Ga had told him what to get, but then later I found out that Ga-Ga was actually the one that bought them and when Santa Al showed up Pa ran out through the garage door to give him the bag of presents so it looked liked they were from Santa! Such sneaky, clever grandparents they are!!!
It was such a fun evening spent with Santa Al and Mrs. Claus...AKA Ellen. What a joy they both are to our kids. We are praising God that Al is doing so well...even better than doctors had thought, but you know they aren't called the Great Healer...God is and He's in control!
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