Soft Open

Today was the soft open, when Santaland is open, but we didn't tell anyone it was open.  A few school groups come through; Puppet theater has a few shows, and we encourage random people walking through the store to come visit Santa.  Shortcake's friend ARG came to visit, took her photo with Santa and said, "So pretty in there!"

There you go.  The first endorsement of the year.

Santaland officially opens on Friday, Nov. 23, and Shortcake will be there next Monday.  She will brave trials and tribulations to get Santa water.  She will traipse through snow and glitter.  She will make sure Santa has clean gloves and Tic Tacs.

In her head, the late Don Lafontaine read that last paragraph.

Shortcake is currently sitting in the Cleveland airport. (Santa needed the flying reindeer, and we try not to abuse them this time of year.  Think of it as the taper leading up to the marathon of Christmas Eve.  Except they fly farther than 26.2 miles.)  On her flight here she was assigned to row 19, but there was no row 19.  So she sat in row 13.  And she had both an aisle and a window seat.  Yes, she is that cool.  Or the plane was just that small.  There were two little girls on the flight who became very excited after take-off because they could see Citi Field, and Shortcake had to admit the views flying over Queens and Manhattan were kinda amazing.  Even if Chicago has a better skyline.