I swore I would never do it – but yes – we were that family visiting Santa before Thanksgiving at the Bass Pro Shop. In an effort to make December a little more peaceful and less scheduled – we are working to free up our month just a little bit. We tend to shove so many things in one month because it’s tradition and it’s the holidays. But it makes every thing feel so rushed. So we’re picking apart the month and figuring out what can take place in November and even January which will hopefully give us a little more time to live in the moment. So we went to see Santa early this year – and as you can imagine, the kids weren’t complaining! For the first time since we’ve had kids – we didn’t have one child afraid to see the jolly old man, just excitement and anticipation.

We figured going on a Tuesday night before Thanksgiving, we could avoid some crowds. And although it wasn’t packed like we’ve seen it before – it was still busy – we weren’t the only ones with this genius idea. But the problem is, we had a window of time before Steve had a meeting. We showed up and they were handing out tickets for a later time slot than we could stay. We were a little bummed, but we figured we’d just come another time, we’ve done this gig before and have arrived several times where no slots were available.

As we were getting ready to turn and walk away someone tapped us on the shoulder and asked if we wanted their time session that was starting right then. Seriously?! Steve and I looked at each other is disbelief that it was going to work out after all. It was such a simple act of kindness of this stranger but we were beyond appreciative. It makes me want to go early one day and collect some tickets and then show up later and hand them out and make someone’s day. It made our day!