Santa, Bronner's, and a Snow Storm

Hi gang.

As you may remember, last year Kris and I took the girls to see a guy dressed up as Santa Claus here in Midland.  We've done it a couple times, actually, and were totally planning on doing it again this year.  They definitely have a cool setup there downtown, and it's a convenient, five-minute drive from our house, which is awesome.

Well, we kept putting off the mandatory Santa meet-and-greet this year, for no other reason than we were just super busy these last few weekends, and during the weekdays we didn't have the time after school/work to swing it.  Before you knew it, we were two weeks away from Christmas, and Kris and I - being the super shitty parents that we are - still hadn't gotten around to taking our kids to see the Fat Man yet.

Enter Dad and Cindy.

They were taking my nephews, Bradley and Jax, to Bronner's in order to pick up their annual Grandkids Christmas ornament and to take the boys to see Santa, and they extended an invite to us to tag along.  Figuring we'd probably have a hard time getting off our asses to do so otherwise, Kris and I decided to accompany them to Frankenmuth in order to get the annual Claus visit out of the way.

The drive to Bronner's this morning was far from pleasant.  A bad blizzard was rumbling through mid-Michigan, and the roads were absolute garbage.

The lack of visibility was ridiculous.  It felt like we were in a North-of-the-Wall episode of Game of Thrones.

It took WAAAY longer than it should have to make it down to Frankenmuth.  Neither of us were looking forward to the drive back to Midland. . .

Dad wanted to be outside the side entrance right when the store opened in order to get tickets to see Santa right away (if you don't get tickets right when they open, you end up having to wait hours to see him I guess.)  We made it there with about ten minutes to spare, and weaseled our way right to the front of the crowds.  

Unfortunately, we were waiting at the wrong gate, and when the doors finally opened, Yours Truly had to power-walk across the entire store in order to pick up tickets (and it being the "World's Largest Christmas Store" and all, that's no small feat, America.)

As luck would have it, I was able to pick up tickets in the first group to see Santa, and got in line with only about a dozen or so people ahead of me.  Once in place, we rendezvoused with the others. 

(She wanted her picture taken in front of this.  For whatever reason.)

Still waiting in line.

(At least the decor is festive.)

This penguin looks pissed his crotch is buried in snow.

The Houghs, v. 2.0

Abby and Santa.

She talked his ear for awhile, mostly about wanting Star Wars toys.  The usual.

Alayna had a laundry list of shit she wanted this year - Shopkins, Num Nums, clothes, a cell phone, a microscope, a drum set, and, most of all, a Project Mc2 Spy Kit.

. . . Santa told her he'd see what he could do, but she should be happy with whatever she ended up getting.  Nice try, bro.

Santa and Jax

Bradley is a bit too old to be buying into the whole 'Santa' thing, but he's good about it for the sake of his little brother.

After getting the mandatory Santa visit out of the way, we started walking around the store, checking out Christmas ornaments and decor displays. . .

 

Abby, mid-meltdown.  It's a pain in the ass wrangling kids in this store, and on busy days like today - being it so close to Christmas, the store was packed - it's easy to lose the people you're with.  If you do lose them, good luck:  there's NO cell phone reception in the entire store.  I personally think they do that to f*** with people.

In the personalized ornament section.  Every year, Dad and Cindy buy an ornament to have personalized with the names of all their grandkids and the year, and were nice enough to buy us one for our family as well.

After a couple hours walking around with little kids, we all wanted to kill ourselves.

(We'll probably be heading back there over the summer in order to have a more relaxed time with it - hopefully the crowds will be non-existent.)

By the time we were leaving, Abby was an absolute train wreck (she was hungry, and when this kid gets hungry, she turns into a demonic hell-spawn.)

Heading back to the cars

KERN'S

(Yes, the weather still sucked.)

Obligatory, post-Bronner's McDonald's stop for Lunch.

We let the kids terrorize the crap out of this PlayZone (or whatever the hell it's called) for awhile once they finished eating, before ultimately parting ways with Dad and Cindy and nephews and heading home.

That frickin' Zilwaukee Bridge again. . . JUST as much fun in the middle of a blizzard.

- Brian