Santa

Ethan still believes in Santa Claus. He asked me one day if Santa were real, and I avoided answering the question directly because I knew he would blab to Laurel if he found out differently. So he decided the best way to make sure he got everything on his x-mas list was to tell Santa himself. We have never taken the kids to have their picture made with Santa. I have shuddered at seeing terrified and screaming kids forced to sit in a strange man's lap. And so we've never asked the kids before if they wanted to see Santa because we figured they wouldn't care to see the giant red man. This year Ethan had not stopped bugging us about it. We chose a Monday morning to go so as to avoid long lines. That was a wise choice; we were the only customers the whole time. The only complication to our 1st visit with Santa was getting (who of all the kids, but Ethan the instigator for the whole event) to smile naturally. He has this camera issue as of late, and it is soooo! frustrating. He squirms and smiles awkwardly or not at all, and contorts his body, etc. The Santa photo was no exception. Laurel sat beautifully smiling the entire sitting, and unfortunately, the photo we had to choose doesn't reflect her photogenic efforts. Malcolm did great too, smiling and laughing at the assistant's stuffed toy. We were relieved to finish our visit with Santa and go enjoy a giant lemonade and pretzel.