"Just hear those sleigh bells jingling..."

Wingard's, a local nursery down the road from us held a special evening of Christmas activities for children of Avery's preschool - Pilgrim Lutheran - last Friday. Since I am all about free events, we made sure we were there exactly when the gates opened at 5:30 p.m.

The kids (and I) enjoyed a ride in Santa's sleigh train which circled through Christmas trees, plants, and water fountains as we made our way around the nursery grounds.

After the exhilarating train ride, we were able to chat with Mrs. Claus. Although it does not appear this way in the photo above, Avery went to Mrs. Claus and sat on her lap all on her own. She just wasn't excited about Michael taking her picture!

Ryan thoroughly enjoyed meeting Mrs. Claus and kept her on her toes the entire time. He just recently watched the old 1970 animated television version of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."

The story basically explains how Santa (Kris Kringle) was taken in by elves and raised to make toys and share them with the world. He comes to Sombertown where he has to battle the evil Burgermeister who has outlawed all toys. Eventually, Kris Kringle wins the town over as well as the local school teacher' s heart. The school teacher's name is Jessica and she and Santa eventually marry.

Well, poor Mrs. Claus had no idea that she would be quizzed about her origin and her eventual meeting of Santa! When she mentioned that her children were all grown, Ryan got such a confused look on his face and asked, "You and Santa have children? There was no mention of that!"

He even explained to her how he knew she used to be a school teacher a long time ago. The lady looked at him with an equally confused expression and decided to just agree with everything he said. He is the authority on Santa Claus!

Finally, she offered each of them a candy cane and we were able to usher the kids over to the cookies and hot cider table. Avery ate her candy cane in record time. I'm not even sure if it can be considered "eating." As a kid, I remember just slowly sucking on my candy canes and making them last as long as possible. Avery literally crunches and swallows everything as fast as possible hoping that we won't notice and will accidentally give her another one!