School Group Thursday

Turns out, when you're losing your voice, maybe you shouldn't karaoke in a loud bar until 1am.

Shortcake's voice was not in great shape Thursday morning. Obviously, that meant she was sent to the Front Line. On headset.
It was a normal, slow morning until the school groups showed up. We ended up in the back hallway through Crossroads.

Oh, the stanchions weren't set up this morning. And they weren't close to the set up either. Teddy Bear, Shortcake and Pip had to set up the entire front line and stroller alley while people were in line for Santa. At 8:50am. 'Cause that's fun. The manager thinks they had polished the floors, and that's why the stanchions were moved. Bah. Humbug.

Oh, and Good Morning, America was with Santa early, early in the morning. Shortcake was not involved and can't find any of the video online, but maybe you're better at Googling things. Sam Champion was with Santa, and it was Dec. 16, 2010. Go!

Shortcake went to Photo after lunch. More school groups. There was a group of 13 adults, all of whom wanted to be in the Photo, and Shortcake did a pretty good job of fitting them all in and making them look good, if she says so herself. There was also a woman with peacock hair. No, really. She had styled her hair to look like a peacock, complete with different hair dye and everything. Shortcake didn't get a picture, but the woman took one with Santa.

Because we were so busy with all the school groups, Shortcake was asked to take a short lunch, and she went right back out to the Front Line, on headset. The line died down around 3pm, but it was still a 30 min. wait. Which is short. If you were wondering, 30 min. is nothing compared to 3 hours on the weekends. We were a little overstaffed out front (5 elves for a 30 min. wait is a tad excessive), so Shortcake took it easy on her voice, answering questions, manning the headset and generally letting the other elves tighten the corners. Teddy Bear was on headset at the Main Exit, so he and Shortcake had fun over the headset. Time outs may have been threatened.

There were 4 lost children within the 2 hours Shortcake was on headset in the afternoon. FOUR. One was from Brazil in gift wrap. One was a girl at the exit. And two, TWO, were from the same daycare. One was separated at the trains and reunited with his group at the exit. His mom was in the group, and didn't notice her child was missing. How do you not notice your child is not sitting in front of Santa with the other kids? The second boy was found wandering in front of Santaland. Managers called the cell phone number on his nametag, and it went to voice mail. Macy's security came up and took custody of the child, hopefully (eventually) returning him to his parents. The poor little boy was so scared and shy he wouldn't talk. He just stayed by Fuzzy Mittens and nodded his head if people asked questions.

On a completely different note, global warming came to the Village this last week. It was hot in there. Santa was hot. The air conditioning wouldn't come on, and the managers called about 8 times throughout the day. Ice water is your friend.

Shortcake will be back Saturday (hopefully) to talk about the special event she's working with Santa.