The boys and I headed to the airport tonight to supposedly go on a flight to the North Pole to supposedly visit Santa Claus.  Make-A-Wish and Sun Country arranged the event. It was a disaster, from my perspective. First, after we went through security, but before we got on the plane, the boys and I went to the bathroom. It was the kind of restroom with many stalls, but no door on the entrance. Before I could finish washing my hands, the boys had disappeared. I quickly located Jude and Levi, but Asher was gone. I panicked for a minute or so and eventually saw an old TSA agent walking towards me, holding Asher’s hand.  She said that he had run quite far and gave me a look of disapproval, as if I was some incompetent care giver.  Horrid! It was good to get on the airplane and have them quarantined. I made sure I coached the boys ahead of time that they shouldn’t alert all the unsuspecting kids that Santa isn’t real. But, it became clear after getting on the flight that Jude thought that maybe we really were going to the North Pole. He said he’d know if it was the real North Pole if there were penguins. The flight attendants made everyone shut the windows due to the supposed frigid breeze. Jude was not about to be duped so he kept peeking out the window. He knew that even though the plane was shaking, it was not actually flying or even driving for most of the “flight.” At some point they claimed we had landed and then a truck that we’d seen earlier in the Minneapolis airport with lights on it to look like Santa and his sleigh circled around the plane a couple times. We didn’t get out of the plane or even see Santa. I don’t think most kids bought it, and my kids who already don’t believe in Santa certainly didn’t buy it.  Then we supposedly flew back to Minneapolis. We got off the plane and there was a really long line to see Santa and collect a large bag of presents. While waiting in line Asher kept running off. I would send Jude to go get him and carry him back. At one point, Asher disappeared into the nearby arcade and I sent Jude to grab him.  Jude came back screaming and saying his shoulder was injured. So, I had one kid missing and one kid sobbing and another kid to boot. I then decided we were going to leave without collecting their presents. I gathered up the boys and attempted to get their jackets on, but told Jude he could attempt to try to collect the presents without seeing Santa. The next thing I knew was that Asher was again missing. I immediately panicked and ran to look for him the same way he had run before when the TSA agent returned him to me. I even got a few nice ladies to help me look for him. I was screaming for him and got no response. Finally, a little girl who was about 9 told me that Asher was in the arcade. I was not too optimistic, but sure enough, she led me right to him. He was so short that I didn’t see him sitting behind the wheel of a game machine. At that point, we were out of there. I’m never doing another fake trip to the North Pole again!