12/22/07 Children's Christmas Party & Caroling

Today was the Arizona City Children's Christmas Party that we wrapped gifts for about 2 weeks ago.

The ladies who wrapped that day along with all the other volunteers, read that as the elves that helped Santa, were invited to a luncheon after the party as a thank you from Val, the wonderful lady that puts this party on.

The party was held at Duffer's Restaurant on the golf course right here in town.

One of the fellows here in the park donned a red suit and beard to play Santa.

At the luncheon he explained to us what this experience meant to him. I think we all had a lump in our throat as there were tears in his eyes. He told us that some of the mother's had told him that this was the first time their child had ever seen Santa. Arriving by firetruck, as soon as he hit the ground he was surrounded by little ones hugging him and one little fellow even offered him a nickle.

Some of Santa's elves.

A group picture of Santa and his elves.

All the kids were given an age/sex appropriate gift and we were surprised, no, stunned, that they didn't tear into them right then and there. They hung on to them and carried them wherever they went but didn't open them. In addition to the gifts they were treated to popcorn, cookies, hot chocolate and candy.

Each child had their picture taken with Santa and the pictures were printed right away so they could take it with them.

Parents could take their kids pictures with the snowmen out on the lawn and even I got mine taken. I couldn't wait until this picture was done as this little snowman was made for someone 2' 5" not someone 5' 2".

After all the kids were gone and there were some 500 of them, it was time for us to go in for lunch. We had salad, lasagna, garlic bread, clam chowder and peach cobbler for dessert. It was very good and I look forward to lunch or dinner there sometime if today's meal is any indication of the food they serve.

After we finished eating Val presented a plaque to Quail Run RV Resort for our part in the party preperations, the cash donation in addition to the tree and stand we gave.

Nancy Reid receiving the plaque on our behalf.

By four we were all back at the park getting ready for our evening of caroling. There were about 45 of us and we broke up into 3 groups. Two walking groups and one riding on a hay wagon. Each group took a section of the park to cover.

Getting ready....

The hay wagon was loaded....

....and then we were off to entertain the winter residents with our wonderful singing voices.... or lack thereof.

I don't know about the other two groups but our group had a hard time finding someone to "carol" to. Either the people weren't home or they were already out singing with one of the groups.

Some of us had sheets with the words to the songs printed on them but I noticed we couldn't get past the first verse in most cases for some reason or another. I can't tell you how many times we started out singing one song to the rare winter resident we found home but within what seemed seconds we were somehow ended up singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". Oh well, we had a lot of laughs and it was well worth the time to be out there.

After all the groups returned we had spiced punch,,,,spiced...not spiked!

A fun day for us to say the least.