George Square Santa! Sun, 7th Dec 2008

Yay! I finally got to meet Santa! Me! Finally! I know; it’s hard to believe, but I’ve never done that.  I guess it wasn’t around all those zillions of years ago when I was a kid.

Anyway — the pretext was that it was Oli meeting the big guy. She’s an old hand at this; she’s met Santa loads — and at this time of year, it’s probably upto twice a day for her!

We had such a blast last year at George Square (when it was my first “go” on a “Merry-Go-Round”), that we went back.  This time it wasn’t raining, but it was pretty nippy, so we wrapped up well.  Mind you, Ruth lost her glove — and this is becoming a wee habit; every time we’re in the city centre we lose an article of clothing.  Last time it was DP’s hat.

We parked the same place as last year (still for free), and pushed the two prams down the steep hill. We went past the square to find a bank cash point — and this was great as we got to show the kids the lights around GOMA at Royal Exchange Square.

It was just Seven quid to see Father Christmas, but the wait was about 40 minutes.  I normally give up as I hate waiting in line, but this was Christmas, and he was the “Real Santa”, wasn’t he?  Most of the queuing was inside a big log cabin with large plasma screens showing CBeebies.

Then we were at the front of the queue… meeting a very relaxed and laid back Santa! He sat in his big chair and we all sat in the sleigh to get our photo taken — all four of us!  It was magical! Oli and DP got gifts and just as we were leaving Oli suddenly overcame her shyness to blurt out her need for a Dora The Explorer Computer!  Santa winked and said he’d see what he could do.

Ruth and Oli went on the helter skelter, and then we scoffed down scrummy hot dogs and warm doughnuts, and washed it all down with piping hot coffee to warm us up while watching the ice skaters.  Ruth glanced at her watch and was amazed to find out just how late it was!

We couldn’t better the pictures we took last year (which were such a success in the family calander and on websites) at George Sq., but boy, have we got a great calendar for this year! The whole family will be sure to love it as much (if not better) than last year’s! Ho-ho-ho!