We are back at home safe and sound getting Nicole ready for her first day of school. We were so busy and had so much fun in Texas, I was not able to blog as often as I would have liked. I will continue to document our adventures at the 19th ANSC even though, like most of you, we are now back to our “regular” routine.

Saturday started with a surprise guest; Santa! Did you know he spends his summer vacations in Texas? I would too if I lived at the North Pole! (Notice his belt buckle even says SANTA.)

His elves passed out candy canes and a present for each table which one person won.

He also administered the Grand Prize Draws, Santa-style. All the prizes were wrapped and under the tree. If your name was called, you got to go up and select any gift you wished. Very exciting.

After all the gifts were passed out we had a fantastic Tex-Mex buffet lunch.

Followed by a Q&A session with Jeffrey Feinman. What I found the most interesting was that almost all the questions asked were the exact same ones I had sweepstakes marketing companies and promotional lawyers answered in my book.

We left when the raffles drawings began to spend extra time with Nicole at the pool as we did not participate in any of the raffles. Why not? They are only applicable to Americans as the prizes are stamps, envelopes, etc.

Back to the Riverwalk for dinner.  We managed to talk Nicole into eating Italian for one night followed by a big scoop of Blue Bell ice cream.