Ho, ho, ho

Up until about April of this year, Lola thought every random sound or someone at the door was Santa and would freak out. I mean panic, run, take cover.  Her fear had subsided, but we don't ever tease that random noises are Santa either.  It was strategy, I swear. I was trying to teach her that he is so far away that time of year and that there is no way he would come seek us out anyway.

She exclaimed about 10 days ago that she wanted to go and see Santa and tell him what she wanted. She kept saying, "I won't cry."  I said that we could go on Sunday and she asked when she was going everyday after. So Sunday came and we made our usual game plan of errand running and other miscellaneous tasks that we tackle on this one day we have off together. We headed out and ended up eating lunch at Port of Subs in Shopper's Square. As we were sitting there, I realized that they probably had a Santa and we could avoid the whole annoyance and turmoil of going to Meadowood and pick up our Christmas tree from the Boy Scouts. And yes indeed, there was a Santa who sat very alone and idle as we approached. We had to detour to wash hands, but Lola gave a wave and a big," HI SANTA," as  we walked by. She even asked the lady in the bathroom if she was going to see Santa and proudly announced that she was going to go and tell him what she wanted for Christmas and again, that she wasn't going to cry.

As we prepared for our meeting, Lola was asked by the gentleman working Santa's Workshop if she knew what she wanted for Christmas. She told him she wanted a trampoline. He told her to go ahead and go tell Santa. She quickly answered, "You go tell him."

We made our way over to the man in red and as we approached, I felt a bit more weight and tugging on my shirt. I looked down to find Lola clawing at me and whispering not to leave her. I encouraged her and told her it was fine. I even plopped Sid down on Santa's lap to prove how easy and okay it was. Uh, no. Sid started to get red and slowly looked around to take it in. I knew he was only going to last about another 20 seconds before he reached break down. He just quickly put his arms out to be picked up and every attempt to put him back on Santa's lap for a picture was more clawing and grabbing on for dear life. Lola was still hanging on one leg and refused to even stand alone at the side of Santa's chair. There was no way she was going to sit on that lap. There were some AWFUL photos taken of me with the kids, neck bent in an awful position, with Santa. Lola was finally bribed with three candy canes (she calls them candy cans) to sit on Santa's lap, but only after they put a stool six inches away so that I could sit right there. We got two quick shots and she was off in the blink of an eye.

These are the pictures that we got:





Yay. Done and easy. No lines or crowds.

As soon as we hit the parking lot, Lola asked if we could go see Santa again!