Breakfast with Santa & the 2nd Annual Toy Drive

I'm finally getting around to posting about Breakfast with Santa and our Toy Drive. First, Breakfast with Santa was a blast this year! Even more fun than last year..although, I'll never quite be able to get over how cute Reagan was that first year!

We ate blueberry pancakes on a stick, did lots of crafts (most of which are still in the car from Reagan playing with them that day!) and Reagan got to see Santa. Later that day, we headed into town to see Santa again, visit the indoor conservatory and attend a gingerbread house exhibit..you wouldn't believe some of the gingerbread houses!!! Below are some pictures from our fun day, and of course, my beautiful baby!

And unfortunately, no, I didn't get any pictures of the gingerbread houses, although they were beautiful (one was a Church..stained glass, WITH A FULL WEDDING WITH GUESTS made of fondant, inside!!!)..our camera's battery was dying. We did manage to get one of us..but of course, as luck would have it, my eyes were closed..blah!







And last, but not least, the toy drive. This is our second year for Reagan's Christmas Toy Drive for Hospitalized Children. The first year, was actually very small and consisted of us, along with Josh's parents, donating goodie baskets to the parents of the NICU babies and coloring books and crayons to the pediatric and PICU patients. This year, along with the help of my local Mom's group and Reagan's grandparents again and several friends and family members, we were able to donate a huge amount of books and toys, as well as some amazing cookies, cooked by myself, Josh's mom and several of my friends. Additionally, a good friend of mine asked her mom to knit small caps and sweaters for the NICU babies. So, she did, along with her Church group. They were absolutely beautiful and the most delicate tiny things you have ever seen! I wish I had gotten a picture before we dropped them off!

A HUGE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE THAT CONTRIBUTED!!!!!

Just to give a quick background on the toy drive, Reagan was born exactly one week before Christmas, in 2006. We, of course, spent the holidays in the hospital. It's never a place you want to be with your child, but it feels even more isolated and lonely on Christmas. So we wanted to give back and make sure that every child enjoys a little present on Christmas...after all, what parent is worrying about shopping when you have a sick child?

Anyway, I hope you enjoy these photos! The first is of Reagan in her santa hat on the way to deliver the gifts. The second is of a L&D nurse that helped us deliver the gifts all over the hospital (and yes, Reagan has her finger in her nose!!) And the last picture is really special, because this is one of Reagan's PICU nurses..in fact, this nurse was the first person to ever give Reagan a bath.

Again, THANK YOU to all who made this year's Toy Drive a success! God Bless!