Everyone loves Santa (almost)

We had a fabulous weekend. My kids saw Santa at the annual Ashburn Farm community "Meet Santa" party. We've taken our kids to see Santa there for the past three years and it is great. This year Maddie entered the drawing contest for the "Meet Santa" party. The results aren't in yet, but she did a great job on "Frosty the Snowman" complete with Santa's house (note the use of Christmas colors) and a special gingerbread man left for Frosty:

Here are some pictures of our kids seeing Santa through the years:

2004

2005

(We're not quite sure what happened to Zack in the 2005 pictures, I think he had fallen asleep in his stroller.)

2006

Mylie was, apparently, less than thrilled to meet Mrs. Claus.

Zack sure wasn't into having his picture taken this year. Check out the faces of Maddie, Andrew, and Santa as they brace themselves to be whacked by the wrath of Zack and his balloon:

Poor Santa had to hold all the kids, and had no hands free to protect himself. We are afraid Zack may have landed himself on Santa's NAUGHTY list. Fortunately for Santa, I intervened and no one was hit with the balloon. The balloon was confiscated and Zack was very angry. Andrew was sitting at a strange angle on Santa's lap, so he sort of looks like a poster child for Preparation H:

At least my kids look forward to sitting on Santa's lap and telling him what they want for Christmas. Brooke's kids don't seem to enjoy it quite as much, as is evidenced in the following pictures.

Bracken Allen at one year old meeting Santa in 2004:

Abbie Allen at one year old meeting Santa for the first time in 2006:

I must confess that my own childhood pictures with Santa look much more like the Allen kids. I think I was terrified of Santa until I was about six. Don't worry Bracken and Abbie, Santa just wants to unload a bunch of toys for you on Christmas. There's nothing wrong or scary about that.

This weekend I also discovered the grocery game. Some of you may already be familiar with it. One of my good friends told me about it recently, so I went to www.grocerygame.com to check it out. It is a website that helps you learn to maximize coupons at your specific grocery store on the things you were already planning to purchase. I decided to do their four weeks for $1 trial period. I went to Harris Teeter on Friday and saved $60 on things that were already on my grocery list. I was very excited. If you check it out and decide to sign up for it, put my name down as the one who recommended you and I can get an additional free week. I'm going to put my grocery savings into a savings account and see how much I'm able to accrue in 2007. I'll let you know if I hit any truly spectacular savings.