North Pole, AK...and a magical experience

I cannot wait to scrap this story...but it'll have to have a bit of hidden journaling until *someone* is old enough and the jig is up. I'm sure it won't be long cuz she's too smart for her own good. I have no clue how old I was when I figured it out...but hopefully this story will keep it going for a little longer.

One of the things you MUST experience if you make it to Fairbanks is North Pole, AK. What is in North Pole? Santa, of course!!! There's even a Santa Claus Ln where all the street lights are on candy cane poles...even the McDonald's sign is on a candy cane pole. In my head the picture turned out MUCH better, but I couldn't get a good vantage point, so this is the best of what I could get. Anyway, the Santa Claus House is also in the North Pole...duh! OK, it's a gift shop, BUT, Santa is there Tues - Sat...hee, hee. So here's how the story unfolds:

We go fishing on Sat morning before Jeff has to be at the shoot. On the way we pass the North Pole. Erica sees Santa Claus Ln with all the candy cane street lights and is in awe. She also sees the Santa Claus House and seems excited to return. We go to the club after being skunked at Jeff's old fishing holes (from 20 years prior) and hang out until lunch time. We go to lunch and then we make our way out to the North Pole. As we're heading out of town, Erica says, "I don't wanna go to the North Pole." I ask her why and she says, "...cuz they're pretending, mamma." Ugh!!! See, too smart for her own good (or is it my own good). I ask her why she thinks they're pretending. She says, "The North Pole is cold and there's no snow here...they're pretending." Can't fault that thought process, can ya?! So I TRY to explain that summers in Alaska and how the sun is way up in our sky so we get sooooo much sun that it melts all the snow this far north every year...she's quite for a while, and then says, "That's fine...we can go see the North Pole." Whew...SAVE!!!

We get to the North Pole and park at the Santa Claus House. In true scrappin' fashion, I take lots of pix outside and as we head inside. Then we walk thru the "house" looking at all the shirts, ornaments, and misc Christmas decorations. Erica sat on a bench in front of a painted Santa and all of a sudden, we hear, "HO...HO...HO." Erica JUMPS to her feet and walks into a small room off to the side where there's a BIG chair and the most magical man in the world (outside of Daddy...of course). She immediately gets shy (well, shy for Erica), stands in front of him and talks about what else...Shooting! She's wearing an adorable pink shooting vest Grandma made her. Santa asks if she shoots and if she's there for the big weekend shoot. She says yes and brags about having her own .22 and that Daddy is at the shoot. Then they talk about where she's from and I'm just about to cry cuz I'm sooooo happy that he's there to prove it's not pretend! Yeah...the magic continues!!!

We buy a few things and head outside to walk around "Santa's yard." Gee, what would you think hangs out around Santa's house? Elves? Well, we only saw them as topiary statues. But we also saw...REINDEER!!! Erica says she even saw Rudolph. And guess what the scrapper in me picked up??? REAL, LIVE, HAIR FROM SANTA'S REINDEER!!! I think it belongs to Blitzen...at least that's what I think...and here's a picture of the one I think is Blitzen.

Now here's one of the funnier parts of the story. Blitzen would be a VERY GOOD HUNTING TROPHY. While we were there, there were two gentlemen taking video and commenting about how nice his "double shovel" was. Erica chimes out...Santa's reindeer are all girls! Ha...we were at the Large Animal Research Station where they study Muskoxen, Caribou, and keep Reindeer on site (rotating them thru the pastures). Part of the tour we took they explained how the males shed their antlers late fall, and the females keep them well into winter. The scientific reason is the males need them for fighting other males for the right to mate, and the females need them to fight off the males for food thru winter. So, since all of Santa's reindeer are portrayed with antlers, that means they are all girls!

More stories to come...and hopefully some layouts soon...I sure have enough content to keep me busy, that's for sure!!!