Santa At Milton Keynes

Santa At Milton Keynes, a photo by Lukasmummy on Flickr.

Credits: Layered template (Talk Back, Template 3) by Jen C Designs, CU Stitching Action by Mommyish Designs, November Photomask Challenge by Indigo Designs and Smells Like Christmas and P2012 Fall both by Jen C Designs. Fonts are Maggie Moo and Walking Around.
Journalling reads: We are always looking out for fun new things to do at Christmas with the kids.. Since we generally do not tend to have many options close to home it means we have to travel. When we just had Lukas it was much easier for us to try a new experience every year because we could use the coaches or the trains. In 2007 we decided to try taking Lukas to Milton Keynes to see Santa. I had a lot of fond memories of how beautiful the Christmas scenes were when we visited as kids. We made a really last minute decision to start out our day by visiting the small local grotto at Templars Square before going to catch the coach. When we got to the centre MK we were not really sure where to start, there were so many things to look at. We had to reserve a time slot to see Santa which gave us some time to kill. We had an awesome time walking around near the grotto and looking at all the handmade goodies available for sale in all of the little wooden huts. Lukas got to ride on the carousel twice, before I managed to convince them to let me loose with the camera to try and photograph the amazing Wind In The Willows scene. I think I could have happily spent the entire day trying to capture all of the tiny details they had included and still only managed to scratch the surface. All of the little animals were so adorable. I was quite sad that I could not spend longer admiring all of the beautiful scenery and appreciating all of the little details before we got to go and see Santa. Our time slot was quite late so unfortunately we did not have the chance to go back for a second l look around after we had finished our visit to see Santa. After looking around we only had enough time to go and give Lukas a quick change of clothes, before we had to queue up for our visit to see Santa. Lukas was really excited and he loved all the elves chatting to him while we were waiting. When we got to the front of the queue we handed over our ticket once I had asked them if I could have it back and begged them not to damage it too much because I wanted to scrap it. They looked at me like I was crazy but they were happy to oblige. Once it was our turn to see Santa, we were led through in to the grotto. Lukas was able to talk to Santa for a while about what he wanted for Christmas. Then one of the elves was nice enough to offer to take a photograph of us as a family with Santa in addition to the official one. I was thrilled as we very rarely manage to get photographs of us all together as one of us is usually taking the pictures. Lukas choose a magic set as his present from Santa. Our last stop was at the photo booth, we decided to buy a magnet and a key ring in addition to the standard photograph. We also got a newspaper featuring our photograph, which we had to have posted to us. We just had time for some quick shopping and a trip to Mcdonalds to try their festive menu before we caught the coach home.