Santa Surprise Sunday!

After a number of failed Santa's grotto visits, my dad (Spud's granddad) wanted to do something special with his grandchildren last year, and that something special involved my dad and his wife Lizzy transforming their house into a grotto, and my dad dressing up as Father Christmas and giving the children a present off their list, something they'd actually play with, an item that was worth more than a pound, an item that was safe for them to play with, and an item that was wrapped properly!

Grotto's don't seem to be popular in our home town of Reading this year, with both our shopping centre's not having a grotto insight, we all hoped my dad and Lizzy had the same surprise planned for the children this year, and luckily they did! We received a text at the beginning of the week from my dad telling us Santa would be visiting his house on Sunday 20th December.

I decided to keep this a surprise from Spud, and just told him we was going there for a surprise, so all week Spud has been counting down the days until this surprise, and then on the day itself he started counting down the hours and then minutes, he wasn't left disappointed though when it was his turn to meet Santa!

Spud is very shy around people he doesn't know, and so when it was his turn to visit Santa in Grandad's conservatory, he went very shy, giving Santa a small shy wave and a very small, hard to hear hello! Spud sat down next to Santa, and luckily didn't say anything to me about him thinking it was his Grandad, and Santa asked what he'd wanted for Christmas, to my shock, Spud asked Santa for something that wasn't even on his list!!! Santa however did have the Imaginext Penguin and Joker set in his bag, another item Spud did have on his list!

Once all the children had seen Santa, it was time for a few sausage rolls and mince pies before we all headed to our local church for a evening of Christmas Carols by Candlelight. It was lovely for the children to be reminded of the reason behind the season - the birth of baby Jesus, as we're Christians, and personally celebrate Christmas for the birth of our saviour!

Jada x