The Aikins Family: December 2012

***I thought I posted this a couple of weeks ago but noticed it said draft so pretend this is Dec 9th***

Friday I took Adam to Snowflake Castle here in Westerville. It used to be held at the Senior Center but this year they moved it to Everal Barn and Homestead to make it more like the elves workshop and Santa's home. For $5, your child got to help the elves make a toy and get a picture with Santa. When we got upstairs to the elf workshop, Adam was like "Is this all there is??" I'm not sure what he was expecting - there wasn't that much at the Senior Center and this was way cooler. The kids got a choice to build a wooden castle, a wooden bear or a wooden train. I thought the train was the best but Adam decided on a castle. He was handed a grocery bag of parts and told to wait until an elf was free. Once one was free (it was only a couple of minutes) we handed him our bag of parts. The first thing he had Adam do was stamp the bottom (it smeared but I think it said Snowflake Castle, Santa Cringle, Elfin Mike). Then he got out the power tools! Adam got to drill some holes and hammer in some nails to put his castle together! It even snowed once while Adam was drilling. Magical elf workshop! Once it was complete, they had an area with smocks and paint to finish their creations.

After that, Adam spent some time watching the model trains. That was always his favorite part at the Senior Center so I'm glad they were able to set them up here.

All that was really left to do was to check out Santa. We walked over to the house. There was only one other family in front of us so the elf went ahead and punched our ticket for the photo with Santa. Adam was wavering (he really doesn't like Santa for some reason). I told him I would stand next to Santa and he could stand next to me like we did for some of the Disney characters. Nope! He said he would rather go to the Santa at the mall. So we headed home. Halfway home, he tells me to turn around and go back. I asked why. He said he changed his mind and wanted to get a picture taken for daddy to give it to him for Christmas. (Aww - that's sweet!) I explained that they were closing soon and by the time we got back they would say no because they were closing. Plus, they already punched the photo spot on his ticket and they might not believe that we didn't already get our picture taken. So - we may be going to the mall this week...