Family time has been high on our priorities this year and with so much going off in December we managed to take some time out and get some much-needed family time.
Every year we travel to a Garden Centre not too far away especially to visit with Father Christmas.
Floralands do an epic job of making the Garden Centre that extra bit special and festive and this year was no different with its fully decked out Grotto and added faceprinting, and even a snack stand!
There are never massive queues and Santa always has time to talk with the kids which really is so nice to see.
This year we wound our way round the Grotto, visiting the sugar candy cane trees
The penguins and polar bears
And then the last stop the elves workshop before heading in to visit with the big man himself.
From the moment Joshua got in there I could tell he was on the verge of tears, not through anything other than excitement and joy and I could bottle that moment up in time I would be ecstatic.
There are set times in your child life with their excitement and awe just exceeds any other feeling you could ever have a parent. Well, this was certainly one of those times.
Santa asked Joshua what he would like for Christmas and he could only think of 2 of the things on his list and he got more and more tongue-tied. Seeing Joshua was totally overwhelmed Santa went with it and asked him if he had been good and if he would like to have his photo taken with him and of course Joshua jumped at the chance.
Being super accommodating Santa also asked if Jacob would like to in a photo too!
So with one of my little boys seeing Santa for the first time and the other totally loving Santa I can honestly say I nearly cried too!
Once outside Joshua admitted he loved Santa and once again nearly cried.
Thank goodness we finally got some family time and got to share this very special visit together.
A massive thank you to Floralands for another wonderful year of Santa visits.
awww christmas can be so emotional especially when seeing it through your own childs eyes.