Fist Bumps for Santa

Drake is at the age when Santa is a bit scary. He enjoys the idea of Santa and stuffed ones, pictures of Santa, and statues are good in his eyes. He will say Ho Ho (he forgets the third Ho) all day long but get the real guy in a room and Drake wants nothing to do with him.

We met Santa while we were at Epcot over Thanksgiving. When we walked up to him, Drake started to whimper. This past Saturday morning, the Clemson Recreation Department hosted a breakfast with Santa. As soon as Santa walked into the cafeteria, Drake started to softly scream. During the breakfast, I asked Drake if he wanted to meet Santa; "No". We walked over to the stage so Drake could watch the other kids talking to Santa but he still did not want to have anything to do with with the man.

Finally we waited our turn and got on the stage to meet Santa. I knew that it would not work, but I thought we should at least try. The whole time waiting, Drake was saying "No, No" while waving his hand. As we approached Santa, the whimpering began as we got within five feet of him. Sitting on his lap was going to be a no go, but Drake was willing to give him fist bumps and high fives (he does not give one without the other). Thursday we will have one more attempt with Santa, but it looks as if the fist bump is closest form of affection we will have this year.

A Disney Adventure

Over Thanksgiving, David, Drake, and I traveled with the Basketball team for the Old Spice Classic in Orlando, FL. Overall, it was a typical basketball trip (going 2-1 in the tournament), but we did get to get away and visit a few of the Disney parks. Going into the trip, we did not think that Drake was really ready for Disney and were actually surprised how much he enjoyed the rides and shows.

On Thanksgiving day, the team was not playing until 9:00, so we decided to go to Animal Kingdom. Drake loves animals and we thought this would be a good first attempt for an amusement park. We got to the park shortly after they opened and stayed until lunchtime (nap time) and then went back for a second quick trip in the late afternoon. Looking back on the experience, it may have been better to stay at the park longer and just do a late nap.

Friday was an evening game as well, so we had a lot of time to play during the day. We had already decided that we were doing parks on Thursday and Saturday, so we found a local playground and Drake ran around and played for a while.

David and I wanted to go to Epcot and we figured that Drake would not mind it this trip. Amanda, Jeff, and Ellie met us Saturday at Epcot to join in the fun. We stayed at the Disney Beach Club, so it was a very easy walk from our hotel to the park, which was a nice change from waiting for the buses for Downtown Disney and Animal Kingdom.

I would say that Drake is a couple years away from really enjoying the Disney experience. Unless we have another trip through work, I would not imagine that we would go more than once or twice more during Drake's childhood. It is something that is fun to experience, but not something that I need to do on a yearly basis.