In the words of the popular children's book:
'We're going on a bear hunt...
We're going to catch a big one..
What a beautiful day...
We're not scared......
Uh...oh...'
Alex disappeared from this photo just when we were about to take it....
Our big girl who was happy to leave school at lunchtime... to go and see Santa.. not really .. but to watch her small brother and sister's reaction to seeing Santa... When did she cross to the other side?!!! We lasted 'visited Santa' in the Aillwee Caves when Darrelle was 5 and it is to be highly recommended...
The Aillwee Caves are in the Burren and part of the attraction is that in order to 'meet' Santa the kids have to go right through the caves in search of Santa and along the way there is a guided tour.... the caves were discovered in 1944 by a farmer who followed his dog in here after it chased a rabbit into the cave.... the remains of bears have been found here and 'beds' they hibernated on are still to be seen... Elena was very taken with this info and seeing the bones of the bears that had been discovered...
Elena on a mission
Parts of the cave are very low and calls to 'mind your head' reverberated from the front of the group down to us stragglers at the back... guess who banged her head!! These are straw stalactites.. hollow in the middle like straws.. they grow very slowly.. only 1cm every 50 years....
This formation is known as 'praying hands'...Can you see them?
Finally the little ones 'found' Santa in the back of the cave... asleep...they loved it....He was a lovely Santa.(with a strong english accent!?). and had a lot of information about each one of them written in his 'big book'.... We did record it but unluckily the volume did not come out for us.. but Alex nodded in agreement to everything Santa had to say to him....
Happy to pose with Santa!
Checking out the facts in the big book with Santa...
4 comments:
What a beautiful area and what fun for your wee ones! I love that Santa was sleeping in the back of the cave!
Such an exciting life you people lead and such wonderful photography to illustrate your great experiences!
I am surprised at the size of the Caves and the background story-Wow!!! A great place for Santa to winter in,good shelter for the reindeers too. A wise man that SANTA CLAUS fellow!
Very interesting as usual.
We'll be seeing youz on Christmas Day. Take care with the driving Once again our Drive-way is treacherous=a skating rink.
So,hopefully,Santa will be able to make it to Balltalley country for Christmas Eve. Maybe Daddy Declan and Alex should drive over for him in the Hertz Landrover in case it is too slippery and dangerous for Ruddy and the other lads. Remember the year Prancer broke his leg on the ice outside Crusheen and had to be brought by Helicopter to the North Pole....Better go and collect him or at least get the presents from him in the Caves in case of the worst. That way you'll have a happy Christmas. Better be sure than sorry. Snow and ice at christmas-who ever heard of such a thing-Poor Santa, poor reindeers.
If they get as far as your house leave nice drinks outside for them. Reindeers love nice warm soup and a little ice-cream to cool it(hot soup) down'
Be sure too that they can hear nice Christmasy music out from the house but not "Jingle Bells",as they get sad and home-sick for the North Pole when they hear it.
Ho,Ho,Ho,
Granddad Albie,who knows all about Christmas!
What a wonderful experience for the little ones. Have a wonderful Christmas.
Frank, Sandy and Caroline
HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!! Love the updates. The Santa videos made me laugh my head off. Both of the kids reactions were in a word priceless - what cute kids they are. Alex and how he kept on looking up at you not quite sure what was going on - brilliant! I wish we had thought to do that. The last time I was in the Burren was the year I did my intercert (1983) we did a weekend trip to the Burren and stayed in an An Oige place in Ballyshanoon I think it was called - you brought back memories.
Sounds like you have cold weather like us. We had snow on Christmas Eve, just enough to cover the ground but last night it was hopping down!!
Enjoy the holidays lads. We are all off until Jan 4th and looking forward to the break!!
PS Orin was hilarious yesterday morning, he told my mam on the phone that whew he squeaked onto the good list and was not on the naughty list this year!! Dont know where he came up with that because we said nothing to him! He is quite the character.
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