My 300th post! Santa come to Manassas!

So, this marks the 300th time I have posted something to this blog - I think that is quite an accomplishment and show of commitment! I have even done well making sure there have been updates about every fun and important thing that goes on in our family.
This post is about Santa arriving in Manassas. You may remember this was an event we attended last year and Jasmine didn't forget it. She has talked all year about how Mrs. Claus gave her a candy cane and every time she sees the train in Manassas she asks if Santa is on it. Well, we headed down as a family to wait for Santa and do the festivities in Manassas.
The website said that Santa would be arriving on the 6:30 PM train and we arrived 40 minutes early and decided to stop in at the City Square Cafe to say hello to Tio and Tia and have a quick bathroom break. We thought we had plenty of time, and even when we saw a train arrive at 6 PM we knew that wasn't the one we were waiting for. The only problem was, when we walked out of the restaurant at 6:15 to join the crowd, apparently Santa had already arrived on the previous train and we missed it! Sadness!Lorne took Jasmine to the Museum grounds to watch the tree-lighting ceremony and I headed to the town square to stand in line to see Santa. This line always gets very long and last year we waited almost 2 hours to see him. This time I was going to get a better spot. I had only been waiting about 10 minutes when Jasmine and Lorne showed up saying the tree lighting was over and Santa was on his way to the gazebo to start seeing kids. Well, there were others who had had the same idea I had so there was a line in front of me.The other problem was that it was bitter cold! I found out later it was 30 degrees. I had bundled up Jasmine pretty well but she was still complaining and crying over how cold she was. There was Subway across the street so I told Lorne to take her in there for 10 minutes to warm her up and then they coud come back out. We ended up doing that twice - I went the second time and after about 45 minutes it was our turn to see the big man and Jasmine was super excited.
She walked right up to him and had no fear. She hugged him, she kissed him and told him she loved him. She confidently told him what she wanted for Christmas (a tea set, an umbrella, and a horse) and she got her candy cane from Mrs. Claus. It was super fun to see the excitment in her eyes and see how happy she was. Children make everything better - especially the holidays.We went to the City Square for dinner afterwards and Jasmine had fun re-telling her visit with Santa. It was a fun time and we hope to do it again next year! It is a great family tradition.