Visit with Santa and some other stuff

Santa was in Kansas City this past weekend, as well as Grandpa Marc and Grandma Susan, so we decided to go see the big guy.  Last year, Maya screamed when I tried to put her on Santa's lap, so I was a little worried about her freaking out, but she and Santa are buds.  Not only did she get to talk to Santa, but she got to have the "Santa Experience".  The first stop was to write a letter to Santa telling him what you wanted for Christmas.

Maya wanted me to write down what she was saying because she was more worried about using the glitter pens.

Here's her letter...scarf, candy and Toy Story 3...that's easy for Santa.  Food for the orphans might be more of a challenge.  We have some good friends who are adopting two orphans, so Maya hears us talking about it a lot and always wants to give things to them.  She told me that she wanted to give them some of her clothes, but only the striped shirts (I guess she doesn't like stripes).

Next, Maya put the letter in the special mailbox that delivers it to the North Pole.  When the mailbox was opened, it sounded like a vacuum and sucked the letter out of her hand.

Then, she made a craft.  She choose to make a Christmas tree ornament.

The next part was so cute!  Mrs. Claus helped Maya make reindeer food.  They used cheerios, chex mix, pretzels, M&M's, and sprinkles, of course!

Oh, and of course there was snow to play in.

When it was Maya's turn to see Santa, she walked right up to him and put her arms up (to be picked up).  She sat there for about five minutes and talked to him about what she wanted for Christmas and then posed for pictures.  I was so proud of her for not being afraid because she usually is!

This is just a random picture of our dog Kala begging for food while I'm trying to cook. 

Here we are working out again...Maya is getting pretty good at the stretching part!

After seeing, Santa we made a stop in Cabela's...Maya wanted to get as close to the animals as possible.

Grandpa Chris came to visit for Thanksgiving and got Maya a new game, Let's Go Fishin'.  We spent the rest of the time playing Maya's made-up versions of how to play the game.