Knowing my children as I do, I was reluctant to take them to the mall, see Santa and pay lots of money to get their picture taken. I felt that it was unlikely that they would be too enthused and therefore the odds of getting that picture of the smiling child on Santa's lap was not in my favor. So, when I heard that the local Chick-fil-A was being visited by Santa and that you could have your picture taken for free...I knew that was the place for us!
So. we went, we waited in line and "we" were pretty excited to see Santa. Now, I cannot claim without a doubt that everything would have gone fine, "we" were happy in line but there is no guarantee that "we" would have stayed that way. What I can conclusively state as fact though, is that the Chick-fil-A cow wearing a Santa hat did not help our cause. Right when it was our turn to see Santa in walks the 17 foot tall Cow, he is there to greet Santa, have his picture taken with Santa and talk to the kids. This instantly wipes the smiles from the faces of my children. And when the Cow tried to hug my 2 year old he went from uncertain, to distress, and started yelling "no, no, go away, go away!!!" Then, of course, it was our turn to see Santa. The plan was to put them both on Santa's lap and get a picture together. I put Ainsley on Santa's lap, and Wythe dissolved into a puddle on the floor.
The picture above shows that Ainsley is not too happy to be there, what you can't see is that Wythe is on the floor at Santa's feet, screaming and thrashing about.
It is now becoming apparent that not only will I not get Wythe in the picture but that Ainsley is not going to be comforted by Santa, even the offer of the candy cane had no effect. At this point I decided to gather my kids and retreat to a corner to attempt to quiet the screams. So I drag two hysterical toddlers to a booth and we sit down. I'm still not ready to completely abandon hope, so I order some food for the kids. While we are eating Peter arrives and I tell him that I would really like to try again to have Wythe's picture taken. So after we finish eating we get back in line for attempt #2. When it is our turn Peter just sits Wythe right on Santa's lap, at first things seem to be going well.
Then, things quickly deteriorate.
So, daddy rescues Wythe from Santa's lap, Santa thinks to himself "thank goodness...I was about to lose my hearing, why can't they only bring happy children???" And, we pack up and go home, mission accomplished, we have pictures of the kids with Santa. Now we will save these and bring them out to torture them with in about 10 years.
'til next time...
Way too funny...
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