Yes, Elise & Brady, There Is A Santa Claus!

Sunday, December 14th--Yesterday was pure madness! We made plans to got to South Towne Mall and see Santa Claus, then off to Sweet Tomato's for dinner, then downtown to Temple Square to see the lights. Well, all I can say is.......dinner was great! We got to the mall and the line to see Santa seemed not so bad. Nate got in line with Brady and Elise and I headed to "Childrens Place" to do a little shopping for one of the nieces. We got back and everyone in the line looked a little annoyed. I guess Santa had to go screw a new lightbulb in to Rudolph's nose or something like that. We waited in line for 45 minutes and no Santa. Brady was done but Elise still wanted to wait. I bribbed her by telling her we'd go to the "Hello Kitty" store if we could get out of line. She said, "Sure!" So we went there and then off to dinner. We love Sweet Tomato's. It's such a fantastic salad bar buffet. Our tummies were full so we headed downtown Salt Lake to Temple Square to look at the lights. I suggested we take Trax but Nate thought it be best to drive down. How wrong he was!!!! On our way we picked up my niece, Samantha. We circled the square for almost an hour before giving up--no parking! The kids were pretty bummed by now so we tried to think of something to do to cheer them up. As we were driving back to drop off Samantha at her house I remembered a little Santa house in Sugarhouse. It's a 6' x 8' shed-like building that sits outside in Sugarhouse's town center. We drove up and prayed they would still be open, if it was still around at all (it was already 8:00 pm). It was there and the lights on. Nate ran out to see if Santa was still around. He motioned for us to run over. We did and Nate came up to me with a big grin and said, "They close at 8:00 but said they don't turn down any children that are waiting at the door." How sweet! No lines and a wonderfully, friendly Santa that hung around well after he was suppose to. He made the kids feel so special and I was very touched.

SO, if you can't bear the thought of waiting in long lines to see Santa at the mall, go down to Sugarhouse and visit Santa in his little house. He's right across the street from the old "Blue Boutique" (so hilarious!). AND, take Trax if you're going downtown to see the Temple Square lights.