Better a Day Late, Than Never

Hi, everybody!

As some of you might know, Santa has moved from Grand Rapids, Michigan to the Tri-County Mall in Cincinnati, Ohio. It has taken me a few days to get adjusted, but here I am ready to officially start this Christmas season blogging. It is my intention to blog every day but sometimes it is impossible to due to Santa exhaustion.

So, let's do a little catch up.

I arrived in Ohio on November 14th and am staying with relatives instead of being in a hotel this year. A real welcomed change of pace. After meetings on the 13th, I felt we were all set and ready to go for the big grand opening on the 16th. (Of course, the 15th was a day of rest because of a national holiday - the "Big Guy's" birthday!)

The big grand opening was more like a tiny fizzle. There were very few kiddos there for my arrival, but I did arrive with the help of the Chick-Fil-A cow! Since I am at a new location, it was kind of nice to start off slow. You can see with the pictures below that I have a new Santa set (from a few different vantage points). It is located in the atrium of the mall. On each side of the Santa set is a grey partition which is part of a waterfall. The Santa set was built over a (disabled) fountain and pond. I'll try to have pictures of the waterfall tomorrow.

I have also added below a few pictures of some of my guests from the past two days. You are probably wondering why I am in a full Santa suit. The agreement with the mall is that on weekends I will be a "traditional" Santa and during the week I will be a "workshop" Santa.

As always, the kids are a joy to get to know and it's fun to hear what things they have placed on their list for Santa.

Santa would like to make a special shout out to Lucas F. and thank him for wishing me a happy birthday! I will talk to Silly and make sure he arrives on time. Silly has been busy getting ready for the trip and he is excited to get back to his warmer people home away from the North Pole.

Thanks again for following along with Santa's blog!

Tardy, but never late -
   Santa Joe