Jessica was in for quite a treat at the start of December – Natasha had organised that we join them and the Garrett’s for Oom Piet’s Christmas Party, a Christmas themed charity evening organised by the Durbanville Rotary Club.

IMG_20151205_190150 jessica and emily ready for their trailer ride at oom piet's christmas party at durbanville race course

The evening was held at the Marco Polo Club of the Durbanville Race Course (horses), and of course, kicking off with a trailer ride for the girls was a sure sign that tonight was going to be a heap of fun for the kids!

(Still on crutches following my earlier fall, I skipped the trailer ride, and instead hobbled over to the seating area on my own steam)

IMG_20151205_190549 playing in the hay at oom piet's christmas party at durbanville race course

The seating area was a walled off little section that had been filled with hay and hay bales, fronted by a large ‘castle’ facade that was to be the backdrop for the evening’s show.

Naturally, the kids went berserk in terms of throwing and rolling around in the hay, and before we could blink, Jessica made herself comfortable by latching onto one of the elf helpers!

IMG_20151205_191851 cute emily lotter at oom piet's christmas party at durbanville race course

Emily on the other hand wasn’t quite brave enough to wander off among all the strange kids, so she spent most of the evening between Chantelle and myself instead.

IMG_20151205_193705 singing elves at oom piet's christmas party at durbanville race course

The kids were entertained by a visit to a fire engine, followed by some singing and dancing, drum majorettes, and a host of dressed up characters making appearances.

One or two Christmas carols were also sung, before the big feature for the night kicked in – the visit from Father Christmas!

IMG_20151205_195431 drummies at oom piet's christmas party at durbanville race course

The lights were all turned off, and one by one a ‘fairy’ waved her staff and turned them on again – much to the amazement of the young audience. Then there was the sound of galloping hooves and a stopping sleigh, followed by the sudden appearance of the jolly red man himself – at the top of the castle!

IMG_20151205_210920 jessica with father christmas at oom piet's christmas party at durbanville race course

This was of course the highlight of the kids’ evening, and one by one everyone stood in line to receive their gift from Santa (we had secretly dropped them off on entry), with Jessica seizing her opportunity to launch 101 questions at a rather taken aback Father Christmas! :)

The night was as you can imagine a great success, the girls had an absolutely brilliant time, which we then did our best to follow up with by getting lost trying to exit and ending up driving around the whole race course on a mission to get out!

Related Link: Oom Piet’s Christmas Party