Final day for Santa House 12-21-08

Maddy Ronchetto and Santa

This makes it so perfect. When Maddy was born her first picture with Santa was with this Santa. Here we find her repeating history with Santa again. Maddy is President Ann Ronchetto's granddaughter and boy is she a beauty. All of us who were working were just saying how beautiful and grown up she is getting. Ann, you have a winner there.

The Santa house finally is closed and with it a total of 345 kids that came through the three weekends to see Santa. We did not disappoint those who made effort to come and see him on this cold cold day. For the second day, we used the Historical Society to help with the visit to Santa. We saw 37 kids on this day and we welcomed them to the warm building instead of having to deal with the cold weather they would of been facing outside. Thanks to all of you who worked the weekends. We would not have been able to do it without the energetic Jr. Optimist and as Chairperson of the event, I would like to say thank you to all of you. Whether you worked once or more than once, I appreciated the reindeer and elves. Jim, you have a great group.
We are closing the house for the season and will move it when the weather gets a little better. We are already passing out the items from the drawings as I am writing this. Those who are picking them up were pleased with the sleds the Arnold's got for me and also the big bears for the smaller kids. I will put a closing article in the two papers and see if they will post one of the pictures I have. I may put a different one at each paper to get more than one. So thanks to Jim, Chuck, John and Kevin for your time on the chair, all of those who worked on the cold days. The Historical Society for the use of the building on our last weekend.
I will post our winners on the blog when I get the last three prizes passed out.

Maddy talking to Santa

Miss Maddy


Visitors



little visitor




one of our small ones

This little one came in with a sign that her grandpa gave to her to give to us. Richard Smith from the Muffler Shop donate this for to use in the future. Nick gave it a try and went outside and used it as people passed by.

Santa house moves to warmer area....12-20...

Mr & mrs Claus




This year we added another Santa Claus to our Santa house. Kevin Edwards and wife Anne were dressed for the occasion and we were honored to have them come and support our project. Kevin who takes pride in what he does is soft spoken and talks to the kids with such great care. His skills and presentation were wonderful. Thank you so much Kevin for making our day. We moved the Santa chair to the Historical Society as the weather was just too much to bare outside. We had 60 kids who came to see Santa on this day and it was a great day. We put a sign on the house directing them to the Historical Society and we made some quick shift was to help with some of the openness. We had never had to have a plan B before but I can tell you we will put one together for the next year. Also dale brought a printer in which he used to print out some pictures and handed them out along with ours. Thank You Dale that was so thoughtful but I think he was able to get a good idea as to how far a cartridge would go for pictures as we will need to go digital next year. The pictures printed out in 45 seconds and were 4x6 and were clear and with great clarity. Thanks to all who worked that day.

Santa talking to some parents

Santa talking to Mrs Claus on a break

Picture with elves

the working elves who came to work on Saturday.

Mrs Claus talking with the ladies.

Santa House December 14th....

Santa John with Chris

On Sunday December 14th, it was finally John's turn to talk with the kids. We had 60 kids who came on this cold day. We set up the tent and Jennifer Bailey and Lon were our workers. Lon took pictures while I showed Jennifer the procedure we did out side in the signing up side of the project. Jennifer brought her 2 year old son Cole who she had bundled up good. His dad had to work so he came with mom. We had no kids on Sunday so the two of us worked outside. Cole did great and he was so patient and we entertained him while he waited for Mrs. Barnes to come as he knew it was time to go when she came. Thank you Jennifer, I know it couldn't have been easy for him. Carol and Ann were the second shift workers and Carol would go to the cars as they parked to let them know to keep their little ones in the car and we would flag them when it was time. To tear down for the night, it was the four of us, and believe me by 5:00 it was extremely cold. It took me hours to get warm. Thank you girls, it was an experience.

Jennifer and son Cole

Cole who went in to visit Santa

Chris and Santa before the kids started to get there.

Santa House December 13th...

Saturday, December 13th, proved to be a very windy day. Even with temps fair, it was windy all day and keeping it from going airborne was challenging. Dr. Chris Small and the two elves helped with the crowd as we had over 20 kids in 40 minutes. We had 86 kids by the end of the day. By the time Carol got there we were ready for her. Jim played Santa with John taking pictures. I know it is cold and windy but I do thank the young ones that came to help, again I fed them and gave them plenty to drink (hot chocolate). Thank you boys. Nick and Jesse with Santa

Carol taking a short break reading the paper

Chris holding down the tarp as the gust of wind would come through every now and them but at the bottom right is the heater, that is real reason for sitting down at the corner.

Santa Chuck, 12-7-08 2nd day for House.....

Santa House 2-7-08
Santa Chuck with Elves....


On Sunday, the second day of the Santa House, it started off a little busy and then slow and then picked up again. Here Santa took a picture with our Jr Optimists who were on hand to help us out. Today all of the members who attended dressed in some sort of Christmas outfit. We had 2 elves, 2 reindeer and two of the girls dress in Christmas colors with Neri wearing the Christmas Stocking with little characters on her toes. Had a total of 5 workers through out the day. Neri worked the desk checking in little kids to see Santa while the others monitored the doors. Again, they seemed to enjoy themselves and as long as I gave them hot chocolate, candy pretzels and some popcorn, they were happy. Again we are so happy to have them helping out. Kathy and Erma Doty worked the first shift and Carol and Carl came and worked the second shift. Even though the kids do most of the work, having the adults there for support and help where is needed, I appreciate all that they do. Bob Morse stopped by for a few minutes and Dave Eames came in to make a nut/candy and popcorn purchased and stayed around long enough for us to close for the day/weekend. It was a cool day but warmer than Saturday and better than we had last year. We will see what the other days bring. Enjoy some of the pictures below.

Another picture of the elves with Santa

These three dogs are precious, they are show dogs and the owner was on her way back from a show and decided to ask if they could take a picture with Santa.

Nick, Jim and Jessica

Jim checking on the JR's.

Erma staying warm

Santa takes time for a picture

Doing a kick dance

Enjoying themselves and waving to the crowd

posing for a picture.

Saturday 12-6-2008... 1st Day of Santa House

Santa Jim and Jr Optimist members



Saturday, 12-06-08 was opening day at the Santa House and Jim Brown did the honors of playing our man in the Red Suit. Along with him, we had 5 of the Jr Optimist members as well. Kristy and Jeannette were our members who worked the inside of the tent while these young Jr's had a ball working outside. They helped by keeping the kids in order and stood by the curb and danced sang and waved the crowd. Our great moments where when a small child truly believed Meredith was really an elf and Nick was a reindeer. The kids did a great job. I am very pleased some of them were able to get dressed and enjoy themselves. We welcome them anytime.
The following are some pictures we took through out the day. Pam Coon and husband from PC Photography stopped by and took some pictures to give to The Pointe. Thank you Pam, we always love taking pictures. The day started off rough and got better within time. The pole we were to use went out and this is the first time we started the House without power, the first arrivals were good about it and we opened the curtains to let the light in until the Arnold's came to the rescue with their generator. Thank you Dale, Sheila and Danni. Without this it would of been a very disappointing day.

Another picture with Jr. Optimist. left to right:Neri, Santa Jim, Missy, Cody, down in front, Elf Meredith and Reindeer Nick.

Santa with one of the small children.

This lady came from a different country and had never seen a Santa Claus, the family she was with brought her to visit and see her first Santa Claus, she spoke no English and she was just as excited as any child.

Nick had antlers on and a small child wanted to see our reindeer and we told him that one of them grew legs so he could help with the Santa house and they believed us. These kids were great entertainment for those who came to see us.

One of our first visitors.

Kristy and Jeannette signing in kids for their pictures.

Here the 5 kids were having fun dancing and singing in between visitors. Nice way to keep warm.

Our sign was posted outside the tented area.

Our two workers Jeannette and Kristy take time for a picture.

Club members get Santa House ready for opening..

Santa House 2008

On Saturday November 22, 2008 a group of club members got together to start decorating the house for our annual Talk To Santa weekends. We have three weekends in which we will be open Saturday and Sunday. Starting December 6 & 7, the 13 & 14 and finishing with 20 & 21. We will have 4 Santa's this year, one of them being a new Santa for us and hopefully we can get him to join up for future events.
Jim Brown will open with Chuck Johnston following the next day. The next week it will be Jim Brown again and John Davis following on Sunday. The last weekend we will have Kevin Edwards and then John Davis closing for the year. It may vary if there should be some issues in which we need to change the Santa's around. We want the kids to enjoy their visits. We will be selling nuts, candies and popcorn on site and if you want to order any, you need to get your orders to Jan Reding by no later than 12-13 as that is the last day she will take orders for the year.
Look at the pictures below as we started to clean and set up.

Our North Pole sign on the outside of the house needed to be updated as it was weather cracked and needed a paint job. We had a person who was going to work on it but ran out of time and John took back the sign and the wooden letters that were to be used and painted and mounted them. These came out very good, nice job John.

Another picture of the sign John worked on.
Finished he proudly held it up for a picture.

Here is where we will get power from this year, so naturally members has to check it out.

Jim working on setting up lights and in the back ground, Dave E. and John are plugging cable to see if lights work.

Jim and John working on the outside.

Meanwhile, the ladies are working in the inside. They cleaned the windows on the outside and now setting up wreath and tree.

Here Ann and Annette are working on the tree.

Standing back waiting to see if the lights are going to work are Annette and Danni.

A finished tree with the new little fireplace that was given to us from Sam Packham to use.

ladies take a picture after they are done. Left to right (standing) Annette, Ann and Sheila, (in front) Carol and Danni.

Guys, left to right, John, Jim and Dave.

Thanks for all of your help. We look forward to those who will be helping during opened hours, please get with Chris Davis if you have not signed up.