Holiday Shopping for Scholarships

This evening, we headed over to the University Co-op for their Holiday Shopping for Scholarhips event. The Co-op is the guru place for Longhorn paraphenalia, so it's a definite favorite for me!

I had told Andrew that we were going to see Cooper, the store mascot, who is Hook 'em's friend. And he was totally into the idea right off the bat. When we arrived at the store, Cooper was outside and greeted us. It was a little chilly outside so we walked into the store.

We came across their Santa Claus (I told Andrew that it was a guy dressed up as Santa because I know Andrew would know this wasn't the real Santa--his face was painted red for crying out loud!) But I just explained that it was a gentleman dressed up as Santa like a Halloween costume and the real Santa was in the North Pole working hard to get all the toys ready for Christmas.

While we were waiting for Santa to finish getting ready, we ran into Michelle, Kaylee, Connor, Emmy, and Michelle's mom. Andrew and Kaylee had lots of fun together after that running around the store. Then, Santa was ready for photo ops. I said Kaylee could go first, but she didn't want to. So, I told Andrew he could go and that's what he did. Just walked up to him and sat nice for pictures. He is such an expert!! Then, Kaylee took pictures too. And then, one of the employees said to wait because Cooper was coming inside and we could take pictures with both him and Santa. The kids were happy to go back up there. So cute!!

Afterwards, the kids got some cookies and the moms did some shopping. The kids also played around the store with whatever they found interesting. And Daddy finally made it the store after fighting traffic after work. I continued to shop while Daddy stayed with Andrew. Later, Michelle had to leave with the kids and Andrew was ready to go too until he heard the announcement over the loud speaker that it would be five minutes until the reading of Twas the Night Before Christmas. Andrew said he wanted to stay for that, but Daddy wasn't feeling too hot. So, Daddy went home while we stayed a bit longer. Andrew sat really well for the story this time (before it has been too long for him), but I think it was greatly in part because some of the pictures in the book were holographic and seemed to "move" including a toy train. Andrew was mesmerized. Then, it was time to go home and get ready for bed.