Santa can't be found in the mall this year, but a very special friend of ours arranged some private, socially distanced meetings with Santa.

We booked our time slot so there would be no lining up, put on our Christmas best and snuck through the basement to go meet with Santa in the Clubhouse. We told the kids that it was a secret and that they couldn't tell any kids we met on the way that Santa was in the clubhouse.

We couldn't be the cause of a long line of children clamoring to get in to Santa. We also let the girls know that there was no sitting on Santa's knee this year. Social distancing was cleverly enforced with some strategically placed pillows and a little mini fence around Santa. After they left the girls pondered whether Santa might be wearing a mask under his big beard for safety; they said they couldn't tell through all that beard.

Isn't the photo of the girls so Christmas 2020? MsI is holding both a candy cane and a mask. MsC has successfully figured out how to stuff a candy cane under her mask, so that she can still suck on it when required to also be wearing a mask (like when we're walking through the mall, but there is a candy cane that must be eaten). It only works with paper masks as they have more stretch.

We took some photos with the Grinch too. MsE in her shyness forgot to tell Santa what she wanted for Chistmas and was quite distressed. I texted Santa's helper and Santa himself What's App'd her back to tell her he had gotten her order.

Afterwards we tried to grab a family photo together outside, but as usual it was harder than it seemed. We used the self timer on Jonathan's phone