Santaland

12/1/2012 We are loving exploring the city life and all that it offers during the holiday season. Tommy found out about Santaland at Macy’s and we thought it would be fun to see… and if we were lucky meet Santa. They also have a puppet show called Moose Crossing that we knew Zoë would enjoy. Apparently we were not the only ones excited to meet Santa! You knew it must be something special by the crowd, the young and old were flocking to the eighth floor to find Santaland. We tried waiting for an elevator, since we had the stroller, but that seemed like it was going to take an eternity. So we did what any sensible parent would do, we took Zoë out of her stroller and booked it for the escalator (we have since come to terms with taking her out and have decided to just leave her in, it’s like a roller coaster… wee!). It was a maze getting to the top floor following the signs and taking numerous twists and turns. Once we got to the top we waited in line as everyone shuffled through Santaland. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was an animated display and the theme was “a day in the life of an elf”. There was the kitchen, the bedroom, the classroom, the workshop, the town center complete with singing trees, and finally Santa’s office. The displays were beautifully done and there was such an attention to details. Every where you looked (even up) there were decorations. Zoë was a little frightened at first. She is definitely going through the attachment phase! After she warmed up to Santaland she enjoyed the lights and songs. It was a little hard to truly appreciate each display since we had to move along with the crowd. We were able to capture some of the details that caught our eye. We kept trying to jump in front of the displays to get a few pictures of Zoë. It was a real feat! Please enjoy a glimpse into Santaland…

At the end you could go meet Santa, but with the crowd we opted to pass (the line was really long and there was a lot of crying coming from Santa’s office) and we were going to get another opportunity to meet Santa at Tommy’s work party (more on that later). Instead we hurried through the gift shop to buy our ticket for the next puppet show at Moose Crossing. We had to wait a few minutes so we sat and chatted about Santaland and our Christmas wishes. When we were allowed in to the theatre we chose to sit on the floor so Zoë could have the best viewing, plus who doesn’t want to sit in the front row. We waited there some more and Zoë crawled around a little to get her wiggles out. Then the ranger Cheryl came in and taught us a song complete with hand motions. She also shared a few rules. Finally the show started! We met Timber Tony and Ewell Log . In addition to the critter crew there were these sassy christmas trees named Connie Fir, Pine-elope, and Cedar-ella. The show was about Christmas time at the lodge. It was filled with humor and lots of intended puns. Zoë was mesmerized by the singing and was completely engaged. Tommy was really surprised at how she was interested in the play.

It was a nice treat for us to enjoy the show as a family. I am planning on going back during the week and maybe then we can check out Santa’s office!

To top off the night we wandered the city a little enjoying the Christmas spirit and decided the perfect way to end the night was with a big bowl of Pho! We did a quick search on Yelp and found our Pho place, Lotus to Go Go. We ordered egg rolls, beef Pho and a chicken rice dish. Everything was delicious!