Every year, our small squadron has a Christmas party for the kids - complete with Santa Claus being "flown" in from the North Pole in a C-21. This year, we were almost without a Santa. I was asked by our commander's wife if I knew anyone who had a Santa suit. I said, "My parents have one somewhere..." and it snowballed into both of my parents coming in for the party as Mr. and Mrs. Claus.
Here is Santa, about to take off - with Bill and our friend, Kris, "flying" him in. Ivan and Grant had asked repeatedly how Santa and Mrs. Claus would get here... and thought that Daddy had the coolest job ever to actually be able to fly him in. "How will he land in the snow up there?" "How will he take off in the snow to get Santa here?" ...and so on. Here is Santa's personal pilot, arranging his gifts.
Awaiting Santa's arrival by the hangar...
They're here!
The chauffeurs!
See, Mom? I DID make his nice list!
What do I want? ... I'd better get this right!
Grandpa?!
Thanks, Mom and Dad!
After Santa and his wife returned to the North Pole, the party continued. The kids made Christmas trees out of ice cream cones and frosting, played with their gifts from Santa, and had milk and cookies.
Grant - creating his tree with great skill and concentration!
Ivan and his buddy, Jonas, in the cockpit.
Mary with Macy, our commander's daughter.
The party was really fun, my parents were a hit with the kids (and adults too), and ,no, our boys are not scarred for life. Neither of them said a word about knowing until my mom and dad showed up as "Grandma and Grandpa" later on. Grant ran right up, looked at my mom and said, "You were Mrs. Santa - I know you did it!" ...He giggled and ran away. Ivan, later that night, said, "Mom, I really thought that Santa and Mrs. Claus seemed like Grandpa and Grandma... " Grant said, "Me too." I said, "Hmmmm... what did you think about that?" Grant said, "Good." Ivan said, "It was FUNNY!" They both went to sleep with grins on their faces that night... Deep down, I think they know it was them, but like to hold onto the fact that they got to meet Santa... and that Daddy got to fly his plane.
3 comments:
Your parents ROCK!! What a fun thing to do for the kids! :) Love that shot of Mary looking at your dad.
That is so cool. You have some great parents for doing that for all those kids. Such a cool Dad to fly them there too.
Looks like it was a blast! I think kids and probably adults too, love to hang on to that idea of santa even when they are starting to figure it out. Adina (7), I think has it figured out but doesn't want to admit it. Makes it more fun for us too!
Jill
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