Here comes Santa Claus….

Here Comes Santa Claus….ok, so how many of you starting to sing it?! It’s ok, you can admit it lol.  We have had such a fun and festive day today officially kicking off the Holiday Season with two great events….Stopping to check out Santa on his Macy’s Whirlwind National Tour and The Husband’s work holiday party.

I agreed to partner with Macy’s to promote Santa’s National Tour because it is for a fantastic cause.  Macy’s encouraged every single kid to write a letter to Santa, addressed to the North Pole and they donated $1 per letter to the kids at Make A Wish Foundation up to $1 Million dollars.  Not only that, but, Macy’s brought in an entire group of Make A Wish kids just so they could tell Santa all their Christmas Dreams….you gotta love that!

This morning started off facing the scales at our Weight Watcher’s meeting.  The awesome news is I lost 4 lbs!!! BUT, that is only after gaining 5.8 lbs from our Jamaica vacation.  Only 1.8 lbs to go to get back to square one….Not to bad for all the delicious food we ate for 8 days.

We grabbed Healthy Egg Rolls after the meeting and headed over to the Sacramento Down Town Plaza Outdoor Mall. (SF + 1 WPA) – 4 points+

LOVE!!! The Husband with our adorable niece and nephew!

We all fueled up at Panda Express before heading over to see Santa.  I picked my two favorite chicken dishes with 1/2 steamed rice and 1/2 steamed veggies.

Spicy Kung Pao (SFL) – 7 points+

And, guess what??? Fire Cracker Chicken is back!!! I was so excited when I saw this. Simply Filling Like (SFL) – 6 points+

After lunch, our “tour guides” led us over to Macy’s for the National Santa Tour!

Stop #1 the Believe Santa Mail Box to make sure our letters counted towards the Make A Wish Donations.

My adorable nephew only wanted to write I LOVE YOU to Santa….after a little coaxing, he picked a few wants

On the other hand, my super cute niece, hopped on the computer and started typing away….she can ramble on the way I do ~ it totally runs in the family

So cute! Seriously….I could sit here and watch like every single little kid drop their letters in the box.

Macy’s knows how to host a party and keep all the kids entertained while they wait for Santa to arrive.  There was a balloon maker…..

And a face painter….

Plus snacks complete with hot chocolate!  I totally told the guy he needed to have MILK for his cookies because that is how Santa eats his cookies  

First on the scene was Veronica to share her story of travelling across the country with Santa.

Then, Santa “slid” up on the elevator greeting everyone.

Santa and his elves gathered all the kids in a circle around him and read T’was The Night Before Christmas to all of them.  I love how intense all their faces are!

After the reading, Santa took pictures with the kids, starting with the Make A Wish Foundation kids.  Macy’s & Make A Wish picked Emily to make her Christmas dreams come true this year by going on a cruise (out of the rain) ~ she is such a doll.

Our little “ham” ~ he had quite the conversation with Santa when he was up there

If you all have kids, I encourage you all to have them write letters to Santa and to check out Santa’s Schedule.  Santa is travelling to all the Macy’s all over the US. It is free to attend and free to snap a picture with Santa, but, you help millions of kids all over.  The tour schedule can be found here.

We had a little bit of down time before we changed outfits again (for the 3rd time today!) to head out to the Buckhorn Steakhouse for The Husband’s work holiday party.

The inside was decorated just as festive as the outside.

My 0 points+ drink of the night ~ Club Soda with Lime.

Starters ~ hot sour dough bread, butter & wine!  Isn’t that wine holder so cool? I totally wanted to drink wine just to pour out of it

I was excited to try the Calamari because it was called Diavolo Calamair…..I had 2 pieces.  I liked the cherry peppers in it, but, it needed sauce as there wasn’t really any spice.

Salad with ranch on the side (SF + 3 WPA) – 3 points+

I absolutely LOVE the Beef Brochette and get it almost every single time we go.  It is one big teriyaki sirloin skewer that includes grilled peppers, onions and pineapple. (SF) – 5 points+

Plus a baked potato with all the fixin’s on the side so I can ignore them.  This potato is so good with the salt, pepper and teriyaki sauce.  I only managed about half of it. (SF) – 3 points+

But, I totally ate all my butternut squash and The Husband’s too.  Everyone thought I was crazy to be excited to eat butternut squash….but, I’d rather have that then steak any day! (SF)

I honestly did not have any room left for dessert, but, I did take two bites of this Lemon Berry Cake with Mascarpone Lemon Cream in the middle.  It totally reminded me of Starbuck’s berry coffee cake, but, lighter.

Thank you all for the incredibly nice comments for my family & my grandma on my post yesterday….Each one meant so much to me and I love you all – seriously! 

I will catch up with you tomorrow with my 12 week Active Link Challenge conclusion, what’s next, my weekly menu & if time, another giveaway.

Night all!