• Breakfast With Santa 2017

Another tremendous turnout for one of Wildomar's favorite yearly events. Despite some random raindrops here and there in the early going, more than 350 people filtered through Fire Station 61 for Breakfast With Santa 2017. 

Yum!

The event was co sponsored by the Rotary Club of Wildomar and the City. Also in the house were Wildomar Little League and Boy Scout Troop 332, while Kat Ellis snapped the pics with Santa.

Kip Meyer and Jaimie Benoit scrambling up some eggs.

Don't let me forget Dunkin Donuts. Not only did they bring copious amounts of their award winning coffee, but owner Mike Stout stayed for the entire event to help pour his liquid gold.

Mike Stout, Bridgette Moore, City Manager Gary Nordquist and Brittney.

There were so many people this year, that several tables were added outdoors to accommodate them.

One of the countless families that were enjoying a great morning in Wildomar.

This is an event that kids look forward to every year. 

Scarlet and Sunny... all smiles. ☺

The fire station is a great place for family photos. In addition to shots with Santa, there were plenty of other opportunities to strike a pose too.

Some small children didn't quite know how to react to the white bearded gent in red.

This "face in hole" photo prop was a favorite...
as it had several different locations throughout the morning.

Say "Cheeeeeeese"!

A couple of the helpers from EHS.

The cooking area was set up starting at 6:00am and was full of activity until the last flapjack was served at nearly 11:00am. 

Rotarian Miguel Casillas (owner of the recently reopened El Comal) helped get the cooking crew oriented before having to get back to work.

Gary Brown looks on as Kip Meyer and Miguel Casillas sort out the links.

Jon Favillo and Matt Bennett were the griddle masters.

These young volunteers were either mixing by hand or searching for shells. ☺

Dana DeJong offers up tortillas.

Below are a couple of group shots of those those that worked to make this event go smoothly... at least the ones that could be found as the morning was drawing to a close.

Let's just go with first names here... Martin, Dana, Carrie, John S, Marsha, Ben, Jaimie, Bridgette, Stewart, John W, Tim, Monica, Joseph, Allen and Paul.

City staffers and elected officials. Tim Walker, Brad Evans, Cameron Luna, Janet Morales, Sandy, Araceli Corona, Les Chapman, Marsha Swanson, Bridgette Moore, Ben Benoit and Daniel Torres.

Mayor Walker, Councilmember Swanson,
Councilmember Moore and Mayor Pro-Tem Ben Benoit.

2017 was a great year for community events in Wildomar and we're looking forward to 2018 as the city officially turns 10 years old.

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.
– Albert Einstein

Other than Simon, Wildomar Rap is as simple as it gets.

• Breakfast With Santa 2016

One of Wildomar's best yearly events, Breakfast With Santa, went off flawlessly once again. From the weather, to the helpers, to the attendees; one couldn't ask for more.

A look at the fire station as seen from across the street.

This event has been going on since before cityhood, and is now a joint venture between the Wildomar Rotary Club and the City of Wildomar. 

Miguel Casillas, Jaimie Benoit and Martin Haeberle cooking up some sausage and eggs.

Volunteers started arriving before the Sun came up (6:00am) to assemble the cooking area in the back part of Fire Station 61, and to set up the tables and chairs in the dining area (usually where the fire engines are parked inside).

An action shot of children having their pictures taken with Santa Claus.

Also represented at the event were WRCOG with a Christmas lights exchange (bring in your old incandescent strings and get new LED lights free), Wildomar CERT (always looking for more members) and boy scout troop 332 selling hot chocolate and mistletoe.

Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs, sausage, pancakes (gluten free upon request), tortillas and a beverage (coffee, milk or juice).

The number of paid breakfasts were at the 375 mark, up by about 100 over last year. 

Many precious moments were had by local families.

An informal poll had most people reply that Facebook is how they heard about the event. 

You can curse Mark Zuckerberg all you want to, but people not using Facebook in the 21st century are a lot like those that refused to get a phone 100 years ago. It's how people communicate today.

The ornament painting booth was a popular activity. 

Local girl scout Marissa Hill had a table for Christmas ornament painting. It was a fundraiser in her quest for a Gold Award project (the Girl Scout version of an Eagle Scout project). I believe she is looking to put in a drinking fountain at the dog park —for both humans and canines. 

Santa getting some assistance from two of the Wildomar Queens as he dips a cookie into some Dejong's milk.

After the event I caught up with 2016 Wildomar Mayor Bridgette Moore to get her thoughts on the morning.

Bridgette
Moore

We had a great community event today. 

Served almost 400 breakfasts. We had WRCOG here doing a lights exchange. We had RTA on hand to get information for their first and last mile study, and to promote their ¢25 student fee [during the Christmas holidays] coming up. 

We also had a girl scout raising funds for her gold award. We had boy scouts raising funds for their programs, and all around it was just a really good day here in Wildomar.

It took many volunteers to make today's event go so smoothly. About half are missing from the photo above.

Today was somewhat of a first for me. 

In the three plus years I've been writing Wildomar Rap (fourth Breakfast with Santa), this is the first event I've seen all five city council members at the same community event... that counts functions like State of the City too.

That's because the usual missing fifth Beatle only has about 48 hours left in his term, and why ruin a perfect record at the 11th hour? 

Members of the Wildomar City Council, Dustin Nigg, Ben Benoit, Bridgette Moore, Marsha Swanson and Tim Walker.

☺

On that topic, Monday December 12th will be a special city council meeting. 

The agenda is brief and is just to have a swearing in of new councilmember Dustin Nigg, Bridgette Moore and a send off for outgoing councilmember Bob Cashman. 

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“My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?” 

― Bob Hope, 1903-2003

Wildomar Rap loved flipping flapjacks alongside Stewart Moore and Paul Bakeman. I dare say we are the new A team.

• Happy Thanksgiving 2016

I trust that all of you had a pleasant Thanksgiving this year. 
Hopefully, complete with some bird, beverage, family and football.

Though it's still going on, we at Casa de Dub Rap are having a splendid time. 

Just two middle aged people, that didn't get tangled up on the freeway, enjoying turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, some vino and NO POLITICAL arguments (with delicate little snowflakes that can't handle reality).

I can imagine for some, it might have been a bit dicey if you have family members that insist on discussing partisan politics —even when it'll undoubtedly lead to a drunken brawl.

Gotta love SNL's Bobby Moynihan as "Drunk Uncle".

Next up is Christmas, then New Year's and then we get to start the whole shebang all over again in 2017. 

On the city calendar there are two events left. 

Breakfast with Santa, on December 10th at the fire station, and a holiday lights contest. 

Not really sure how the Christmas Lights contest works (see what I did there? I decided not to go all politically correct twice in a row). Voting starts December 20th according to the city's website.

There are three different categories

1. Traditional Entries 
2. Clark Griswold Entries
3. Best Block Entries

They seem self explanatory enough to me, but if you've forgotten who Clark Griswold is, check the video below.

Here is a link to the city's webpage about the Holiday Lights Home Decorating Contest. LINK

Breakfast With Santa is an annual event that predates cityhood

It is now a Rotary Club/City sponsored event. If you haven't been to it before it's ideal for kids of all ages. (Don't you just hate that old cliche? Tough, I'm using it anyway! ☺)

There you'll find scrambled eggs, pancakes, sausage, hot chocolate, coffee, pictures with Santa, fire trucks and other things that are still in the works. 

The price is $5 for adults and $3 for kids 

Now that I'm a member of the Wildomar Rotary Club I thought I'd donate my time to making a promotional video for the event. 

Take a look at how well Mayor Bridgette Moore pegged her lines.  Though she did wear a bit of green in her scarf which got keyed out during production. You probably can't see if you are viewing it on a phone, but on a full size screen you can see the green sleigh and blue sky shining through her. 

The hills at the bottom of the scene are from an old photo taken by David A. Brown himself. They are the ones you see on the east side of the freeway not too far from the Baxter offramp. 

Below is a look at a production still during editing.

On the left is the Mayor in front of the green screen, and on the right what it looked like after I'd keyed out the green and added the effects. 

The program is Adobe Creative Suite 6. None of that nasty Creative Cloud garbage that Adobe is pushing these days for me.

There is actually another event that is happening in December too. It's a retirement party for our Chief of Wildomar police, Captain Leonard Hollingsworth. He's been top notch and has set the bar pretty high for his successor. 

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My mom makes something called green pie, which I thought was a delicacy that many people only had at Thanksgiving, but it turns out it was just Jell-O with whipped cream on it. And it's delicious.

— Bobby Moynihan

Wildomar Rap isn't a fan of green pie or turkey jello, but is a big proponent of live and let live, so dig into your favorite food and have a Happy Thanksgiving no matter how profound our differences may be.

• Nearly 300 Have Breakfast With Santa

Today Santa was at the Wildomar fire station.

Wildomar Fire Station

For $5 you got pancakes, eggs, bacon or sausage, and coffee, hot chocolate or orange juice. Kids under 10 were $3.

City Manager Gary Nordquist and Mayor Pro-Tem
Marsha Swanson serving up bacon and eggs to the community.
 While Council Members Ben Benoit and Bridgette Moore [not pictured]
were working to keep things running smoothly.

This was a joint venture by the City of Wildomar and the Rotary Club of Wildomar.

Kid's of all ages had a chance to see the fire trucks, and other first responder equipment, up close and meet the local fire fighters.

And get a pic with Mr. North Pole himself.

Ok Santa, I'm jealous —you're beard is cooler than mine.

Quick back story, my wife was raised in Toronto, Canada. She immigrated here in 1999 after we got married. She is from an immigrant family from Sicily, and they never had Santa Claus in their culture... This was her first picture with him, and she was nearly as excited as any youngster getting their pic taken with him... that smile you see is as genuine as is my look of doubt. :)

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Stat Check

There were 289 paid breakfasts, and when you add to that the Rotary Club volunteers, other volunteers, students from EHS, students from Wildomar Elementary, fireman from various stations. An estimate of 350 to 400 in attendance would be a pretty reasonable guesstimate. If you missed out... 
just remember it for next year.

In addition to all the lifelong memories the various families and kids will take away from today's Breakfast with Santa, a total of $1,294.00 was raised, which will be split 50/50 between Rotary and City.

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Also in attendance were representatives of Wildomar Little League, and Wildomar CERT.  Always looking for local people interested in getting involved. If you'd like to help the local league with sponsorship, or have a child that would like to play organized baseball, click this link to get to their website. 

 Wildomar Little League Link

CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Team. The classes are free. Lot's of good info to learn while getting to know some of the members of the community.

Click here for a link to the city's page about CERT

For a blog about the last CERT training class, click here.

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Donated toys for the Boys and Girls Club of Southwest County

A note about the Toy Drive for the Boys and Girls of Southwest County held at Terri Holladay's home in Windsong on Thursday December 19th. Though she only had a few weeks to get the word out, and it was a rainy day, she collected several large boxes of toys, and it was a chance for many neighbors to get acquainted. Looking forward to the second annual toy drive next year.

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Merry Christmas!