Santaland!

I cannot believe Christmas has come and gone already!! It seemed like the month of November just FLEW by. Then, the days of December, well, I took those one by one as they came.  Suddenly, on December 23rd, I said to Matt, "TOMORROW IS CHRISTMAS EVE BRUNCH." Although my words were in all caps, there was no exclamation point. I was just kind of in disbelief that it was already the day before Christmas Eve.

I'll go into further details about Christmas Eve and Christmas Day themselves on Friday, because today I want to talk about something that has been a HUGE part of my life for the past month.

I have come to call myself a professional job searcher.  I can fill out an online application faster than ever and my resume has been changed/edited a billion times it feels like.  When looking for jobs, there are always a few sites that I check religiously.  One time, in October I believe, I got to one of the sites and just stared at my computer screen.  There it was. An advertisement for a job that was made for people JUST LIKE ME. It was working at Legendary Santa!!

If you live in the Richmond, VA area, I'm sure you've at least heard of Legendary Santa, who started out at Miller and Rhoads and now has a home at the Children's Museum of Richmond.  This is The Santa.  However, if you're not familiar with Santa, check out this link which actually includes a few interview questions with Santa himself!

Anyway, when I saw the job posting, I IMMEDIATELY whipped up an awesome cover letter and emailed that with my resume to the manager.  The next day, I was contacted by the manager about scheduling an interview. To say I was excited was an understatement.  I went for my interview just planning on having a Staff position, but I left that interview having NO clue what was really going to happen.  Not only was I going to be a staff member, but I would get to be Snow Queen, and Elf on a few days.  Most of my days working was spent as a character and it was awesome!!

Santaland opened on Black Friday and remained open through Christmas Eve.  I worked basically every single day and wouldn't have changed it for the world!! While it was just a seasonal position, it never felt like I was going to work, and it was just fun! The other staff members were so fun to be with and we all looked forward to working with each other!

If you're not friends with me on Facebook, or didn't get a chance to see, I waited and waited to make this my profile picture until Christmas day:

Then, one day I was just casually scrolling through my Facebook news feed, and this picture was posted on the Legendary Santa Facebook page!! Coolest thing ever.

And here are a couple of pictures that Dad took when he came to visit..

I have SOOO many pictures that I had taken while working at Santaland, so I'm hoping to find a Christmas photo album on sale to put all of the pictures into!

On one of my last days, I took my copy of Christmas at Miller and Rhoads and had Santa sign the book for me.  That was the best $17 I splurged on a book for myself to remember this awesome experience!!!

And, I hope everyone had a great Christmas!