Visiting Santa

We've been visiting Santa at Bass Pro for years. The kids love it and I love that you get a free photo with Santa! When we drive past Bass Pro, Carter always mentions Santa. It cracks me up that the kids think Bass Pro is just where Santa is and don't realize it's actually a store! My favorite part of our trip this year was how excited the kids were, Elise especially. As we walked in they were holding hands and all smiles. I tried to talk Elise into dressing up to see Santa but she wanted to wear her Santa beard shirt so I had Carter wear his Santa beard shirt that looks similar. It turned out being pretty darn cute!

The kids have so much fun playing with all the toys out on display for them to try out. Carter actually hit one of the target ducks with the arrow while trying out the bow and arrow. I wish I had it on video! Ty met us out there for the fun. We've made it a tradition to go to Bass Pro and then eat at the restaurant there with the free kids meal coupons we get for visiting Santa. Ty didn't mind missing the kids visit Santa so we went ahead and got in line when it was our turn. Carter told Santa he would like 10 Lego sets and Elise told him she'd like an Elsa Barbie doll and some socks. She's really sticking with wanting socks!

They set out a craft while we were there so both the kids made one. Elise used the snowman's buttons for eyes which we thought was cute. Ty was helping Elise with hers and told her she could put the snowflake wherever she wanted meaning anywhere on her snowman. She took it very literally and stuck it to his cheek which had us all cracking up! When we found out the restaurant in the store had closed down we debated what to do. I wanted to take the kids somewhere separately so they could pick out Christmas presents for each other. Ty came up with the idea of us each taking a kid shopping and then letting them pick somewhere to eat afterward. He suggested I take Carter since I'd been home with Elise that day so I could have some alone time with Carter. I think he was also looking forward to overseeing Elise pick out Legos for Carter. I thought that sounded good and got excited about helping Carter pick Barbies out for Elise. But once Elise heard the plans, she started fussing that she wanted to go with me. We didn't really say anything and then once we got outside Carter said he'd like to go with daddy. So it all worked out!

Elise picked to go to dinner at Panera. We then followed that up with shopping at Target. We were super excited to discover Legos were on sale at Target, some of them hugely discounted! I saw a Lego Movie 2 house Carter had wanted to add to his Christmas list but I told him at $60 it was too expensive to put on his list. It was on sale for $30! I was so disappointed that we had already gotten all his birthday and Christmas presents since that was such a good deal! It ended up working out because Thomas bought it for him. Elise picked out some awesome Legos for Carter after we wandered both Lego aisles looking at them and trying to decide on the best deal. It was such a blast being with Elise and she was so adorable and had so much fun shopping for her brother. She wanted to carry the bag out of the store and was so full of joy walking to the car! That is definitely a new tradition I am excited to continue each year!

Here is our picture with Santa this year accompanied by our Santa pictures over the years!

The original for 2019.

I cropped it down.

2012

2013

2015

2016

2017

2018