Patrick had off one Sunday so we decided to go then. Our plan was to go as soon as Santa arrived to avoid waiting in a long line. My children, especially the oldest one, has no ability to wait for long so it was a plan. It was a good plan, until we got to the mall and something pretty caught my eye. :-) Eventually we made it to the line and it was kind of long, but I though not too bad. That was until some lady came up behind us and asked one of Santa's helpers how long the wait was and he replied, "About an hour." Yeah, we had the same thoughts you just did. What could take so long?? You tell Santa a couple things, they snap the picture and you get out of there. They were right though, we were probably there an hour. Amazingly though, all 3 kids were great.
Aiden seemed excited. At one point I remember telling him that he better behave in line because if Santa heard him arguing with Emma he would be very sad. He then pointed out to me that earlier in the day we had told him that he better speak up when talking to Santa (he has a tendency to talk very quiet if he's uncomfortable) because Santa's older and his ears might not work that well. So he said that Santa probably wouldn't hear him if they were arguing for that reason. Why does that kid never forget anything?
Emma had mixed emotions. Sometimes she was excited, or as she put it, "I be so cited", then as we started getting closer it changed to, "I scared". I tried my darnedest to convince he that Santa wasn't scary, that he was a nice man because he brought them presents every year.
Aubrey? She didn't care. She just wanted to be held and eventually fell asleep while waiting.
When we made it into Santa's house, the kids were still okay. Emma was even jumping around and acting like herself. I thought it was a miracle. We had to wake Aubrey up of course, because we needed to take her bib off, fix the hair doodie, make sure he legs were covered.
Finally, it was their turn. And? Emma froze. She didn't want any part of going near Santa. I convinced Aiden to go first and sit on Santa's lap and then Emma could sit next to Aiden so she didn't have to actually touch him. I had to sit her up there and tell Aiden to hold her hand so she would feel safe and it worked. She stayed and I didn't have to be in the picture! The ladies taking the pictures tried and tried to get Em to crack a smile. Nope. She wanted nothing to do with that. I finally just told them that I was really expecting her to smile, that I was just surprised she was sitting there. And even though she's not smiling, I love the picture. Poor Aiden had that pasted on smile because they told him to just keep smiling to be ready in case the girls smiled. :-)
Love. it. I love Aubrey's chubby cheeks. I love their blue eyes. I love how Aiden is holding onto Emma's fingers. <3
Once the pictures were over it was time to get down to business and tell him what they wanted. Aiden told him he wanted Super Mario Brothers 2 and a Spongebob Imaginext toy. Emma said she wanted Minnie toys and princess undies. Santa didn't seem to know what to say about the undies request. Hahaha! We told him that we'd see him soon and that we'd leave him some cookies and milk. Santa then gave them a little treat, a wooden coin for a free kids meal at Texas Roadhouse. Yes! A reason not to cook. Emma is convinced it's a cookie. I'm not sure why? Maybe because we were talking about cookies? Maybe because she's crazy.
Overall, I think that picture and experience was worth the $40 we spent!
No comments:
Post a Comment