A(nother) Visit With Santa

Andrew came in my room this morning and asked where Daddy was because he wanted to go see Santa. I don't know why he was suddenly excited to get his picture taken with Santa but I jumped on it. I asked if he would go without Daddy and then surprise him with the picture and he said yes. So, as soon as the mall opened we were there!

There were a few kids in front of us in line and a couple behind us. You have to choose what picture package you are going to get BEFORE you see the pictures. I chose ONE 5x7 (which was THIRTEEN DOLLARS!!!! for a picture printed off a regular printer) because I really did not know WHAT was going to happen when we got up with Santa. The three kids in front of us all started crying as soon as they were put on Santa's lap (these kids were all older than Andrew). I started getting nervous! I went to take off Andrew's backpack and he started crying. I quickly put it back on him and he stopped.

When it was our turn I asked if they could both sit on Santa's lap even though we only paid for the one picture. They said we could. I dressed both of them this morning to have pics, but I did not figure Mady was going to go for it. I was WRONG! Mady went to Santa with no problem and immediately started gently playing with his beard (remember it is a REAL beard). She did not stop smiling the entire time she was on his lap. Then Andrew got on his lap with her. He spent the entire time trying not to smile (but having a hard time hiding the smile).

They took three poses and one of them was really sweet. Santa was looking at Mady and Mady was looking at Santa with a HUGE smile on her face. But AJ was looking the other way and I could only choose one pose :(

After they took the pictures I took Mady and Santa asked Andrew what he wanted for Christmas. Then he asked Andrew if he was going to put out milk and cookies, so he would know if he should look for them when he was at our house. Andrew (who makes his lunch every morning when his brothers make theirs) opened his backpack and pulled out a thing of Oreos. He handed them to Santa. Santa smiled and tried to give them back. Andrew says "No, you cookies". Santa let out a loud, jolly, right-from-deep-in-the-belly, HO! HO! HO! laugh. It made Andrew jump back and then he started laughing. Santa seemed genuinely surprised by the cookies and AJ was genuinely surprised by his respone!

I am so glad this will be his first memory of Santa.



Price of an okay quality picture: $13

Price of awesome Santa memory: priceless!!!