Sit on Santa's Lap or How I Try to Break National Security with Photos

This past weekend The Neighbors invited us to the kids' Christmas party on the Navy base, the largest one on the East Coast. Converting one of the hangers into a den of noise fun for the kids.

When Caroline invited us via IM she said, "It should be fun, they're flying Santa in for it too." Knowing Caroline well, I took this as a smartass comment about him coming down from THE North Pole.

As we were walking up to the building, a helicopter went by and we saw the red hat. He was flying in literally minus the reindeer.

The party organizers definitely knew what they were doing.

 They had large rolls of bubble wrap out for the kids to jump on that was next to rolls of brown paper with crayons.

There were balloon bounces in which it's hard to get a good picture of a moving target.


Craft tables to make hats and clothesline clip reindeer which Alexis, Mo and Troy enjoyed.


"Sparky" rode in on the fire truck.


Facepainting was an option for the kids who could sit still long enough. Alexis went first and I mistakenly thought her snowflake was a spider's web. I suggested Troy get a Christmas tree so I didn't screw up again.


Of course, the highlight was sitting on Santa's lap and getting a toy. Similar to the recent photo session at school, Troy was bribed and told he could wear his Virginia Tech jersey later in the day if he didn't cry.


Because the lighting was so bad in the hanger, I forced asked the children to pause for a shot with the helicopters in the background.


It was a good time.