The Annual Trek

Warning: The following photos may bring back some fond memories and/or make the viewer wonder just where in the world did time go. This post fits well in my "Blast From The Past" category.

Then.....

December 1997, Katherine at Gardens Mall

December 1999

Megan joined our family....

December 2000

December 2002

This Is NOW....

Today....Gardens Mall

Have They Changed Just a Little?

I don't want to hear the answer, but I will ask the question....

Have I changed just a little?

Part of the annual tradition is having Ron join us at

The Gardens Mall...

The Santa Magic is alive...for a few more blinks of an eye....

The "Matchy-Matchy" Christmas Outfits end this year...

promise....

Santa parked his sleigh near this nice new "throne".

It is the widest chair I have ever seen Santa sit in.

I hope that is not a commentary on obesity in young children, etc..

Maybe it is a double wide for large families....in South Florida?

Utah, maybe...but South Florida? This Chair is WIDE.

Once our visit with Santa was over, it was time to soak in the beauty of

The Gardens Mall.

(Which by the way, is 20 years old this year...seriously...

Ron was just building a two of the new stores last week)

The decorations are breath taking and I had my camera ready and waiting.

Megan

Katherine

For the 12th Christmas in a row, we visited Santa in the same place, with many of the same traditions. We meet Ron at work, the girls go office-to-office sharing our homemade Christmas Cookies, we head to the Mall, Ron meets us at Santa, we eat lunch, we miss a day of school.

Today.....A few slight changes to our Tradition. I call them the compromise traditions. The girls WENT to school this morning (they are just getting too old to miss a day of school...even for Santa) and I checked them out after lunch. We did not bring cookies in to the office, as so many people were out of town today.

And....no lunch.... we went out to dinner...Cracker Barrel on the way home, thanks to my friend Cathi. I won a Cracker Barrel Gift Card as a give away on her blog. Thanks Cathi! It was the perfect time to use the Gift Card!

Merry Christmas!!!!