Santa Coming!

On Friday we went to see Santa.  We decided not to brave long lines and pay for an expensive picture just to see Santa this year.  I kind of expected that Emily wouldn't want to see on his lap and it was going to be iffy with Sam.  Our bank has a Santa, with a real beard, that sits next to a beautiful tree and hands out candy canes.  You can take your own pictures and every year we've gone, this is the third year, there hasn't been anyone in front of us.  This sounded like a perfect solution.

Paul and I rushed home from school in order to make it to the bank before 5 o'clock.  On the way we talked about seeing Santa and sitting on his lap.  I tried, again, to get them to say what they wanted for Christmas.  Still mum on that topic.  They seemed pretty excited to go see Santa.

Once we got there we walked inside.  They immediately saw Santa but they were really cautious.  Emily really didn't want anything to do with him at first.  She didn't even want me to put her down.  We put Sam on Santa's lap and he sat there, without smiling.  We took a couple of pictures then tried to persuade Emily to at least stand next to him.  She didn't want to.  So instead of pushing the issue I just stood next to Santa with her.  It helped that Santa gave her a candy cane so she had to get a little closer.  We stood and chatted with Santa for a little bit until another family arrived.  We said "Thank you, Santa" for the candy canes and went in line to deposit some money. 

From the line Sam and Emily said thank you to Santa at least 10 times.  Silly kids.  Emily even sneaked in a wave or two.  Overall it was a great success!