Courtney's Class Party

I am the room mom for Courtney's class.  I love simple parties where there isn't a lot of stress.  This year we did it really simple.  At the end of November, the class made Christmas stockings from paper bags.  All through the month of December, parents volunteered to go into the classroom and read a Christmas story to the kids.  They left a small treat/toy in the stockings to remind the kids of the story.

For their class party, I invited a man from our ward (Don Martindale) to come in and read his favorite Christmas story to the class.  Brother Martindale is really cool because he is a professional Santa.  Up until this year, he was the Santa at Tuacahn.  But he has retired now and is finding it really hard to give up.  He was thrilled when I asked him to read to the children.

Thursday afternoon I met the Martindale's (his wife, Shannon, came along too) in front of the school so I could show them where the classroom was.  After signing in and getting guest passes (a new procedure thanks to the recent school shooting), we began walking down the hall to Courtney's class.  Now, he wasn't dressed as Santa.  He was in a red vest, Santa hat and church pants, but kids came running out of their classrooms saying "Hi Santa!"  It was cute and he loved it!

Once in Courtney's class, he was right at home with the kids.  He sat right down on the rocking chair and began reading the story of Nicholas' early life.  Did you know that Nicholas (i,e, Santa) was an orphan who didn't have a home?  He lived on the streets of a town and would whittle toys for the kids in the village and give to them on Christmas day.  One day a woodcutter saw what Nicholas could do and took him in as his apprentice.  The old woodcutter was mean and didn't like children (because of something that had happened in his past) but Nicholas' kindness soon melted his heart.  One year rhe old woodcutter helped Nicholas make the small toys for the village children but they soon realized that Nicholas couldn't deliver the toys on Christmas day because the woodcutter needed help making a delivery to a woman 20 miles away.  They finally came up with a plan to have Nicholas leave the toys for the children on their doorsteps on Christmas Eve.  Nicholas liked this because he didn't like all the praise and thanks that the children heaped on him when he gave them their toys.  And that is how Nicholas became St. Nick.

When the story was finished, the kids gave him a huge "Thank you!" and he was free to go.  They loved the story and Brother Martindale loved reading it. 

Brother Martindale even brought them an autographed picture of Santa!  The kids thought that was so cool.  This is actually a photo of Brother Martindale that was taken 10 years ago when he was playing Santa in New York City.  It was a handout they would give the children after they sat on Santa's lap.  He has special connections that made it possible to get it autographed!