The North Pole

I know, I'm way behind, but I want to post these memories anyway. Is there any way of changing the date on a blog post to represent when I wish I would have posted it?
South Bend's Downtown puts together a darling Santa's Village every Christmas. They usually do it on the field at the College Football Hall of Fame (which is fantastic all by itself) in a little Santa's cottage. However, because of the tremendous amount of snow on the day we went, they had moved it inside.
It would have helped if I had known this in advance. I was so worried about my kids being cold while waiting out in the snow that they were thoroughly thoroughly bundled. This is Bella, before the addition of her jacket and mittens. She couldn't bend at the waist through so many layers. I think, deep deep down inside she really liked it.

The big girls did like it. They love dumping the bag of snow stuff out and finding their favorite mittens and hats and scarves. That's most of the fun of going outside--the pre-excursion accessorizing.
There was cookie decorating in the Village area, and Santa was the kindest person ever. (Obviously--he's Santa.) When Mimi asked for make-up, he said she was such a pretty little girl she didn't need make-up. He posed for individual pictures along with the group photo. And his beard was real.
They also run a little trolley around downtown for free during the holidays. You really can't find anything more exciting than a bus ride, you know. And for free--that's my kind of fun. (We were accompanied by the Bradys on this expedition--that's Ryan and Kacie in the picture, those cute girls. And Matt and Tracy introduced me to white hot chocolate at the South Bend Chocolate Cafe--SO delicious. )
Mimi determined the fresh snow on the bench was delightful.
And we topped it all off by meeting John at the hospital for dinner. It was a perfect day.