Santa

So, we made an impromptu stop at the dreaded mall yesterday to see if we could get a photo of Rory with Santa. It was one of those things that I couldn't decide whether or not to do. On one hand, it seems like the type of thing you're just supposed to do as parents, and you are "supposed" to have that photo, even if the kid is screaming because you threw him on some strangers lap and then walked away. I find those photos sort of hysterical when its other people's kids screaming on Santa's lap, but somehow doing that to my own child felt sort of like unnecessary torture for him (and us). He's been super attached lately and I just wasn't sure if it would be any fun for him. And, if it wasn't going to be any fun, why on earth would we torture ourselves with a trip to the mall at this time of year when we don't generally enter the mall doors ANY time of year. After thinking it through all week, I still hadn't come up with a clear answer as to whether we should go or not. I looked for another opportunity to sit on Santa's lap that would not involve going to the mall, but apparently I looked a bit too late. It seemed that most of the alternative venues for seeing Santa that were open to the public were either really expensive or had already gone past. We went out to lunch yesterday after running errands and purchasing our new woodstove for the new house and Rory was so good at the restaurant. He had taken a nice nap in the car while we ran errands and he was happy and then he ate nearly an entire cheese and bean quesadilla, so he was well fed...and suddenly it just hit me that we had to go see Santa and that this was the time to do it. I felt like all signs pointed to a non-meltdown situation. He was well fed, well napped and in a good mood. I broke the news to Bev on our way out of the restaurant and I thought she was going to shoot fire out of her eyes with the look she gave me. She was not at all happy with the idea of heading to the mall to stand in a line when we had so much to do at home. I think she thought I was trying to avoid our "clean out the attic" adventure which was scheduled for that afternoon. I offered to take her home first, but finally she came around to the idea that this was something we really probably should do and that if we were going to do it, now was as good a time as any, although I'm fairly sure there was some under her breath swearing about the mall and standing in lines. Hopefully Santa didn't hear. :)

It went about as well as we could have expected. There was a huge train set up next to Santa so that while you're waiting in line you can watch the trains go around and Rory was entertained enough by that not to freak out. We had waited about 15 minutes when we noticed the sign that said "Santa feeds the reindeer from 2-3pm"...it was 1:45. We were definitely not going to be waiting an hour for Santa to return from his break if we didn't make it before 2, but I had high hopes that we'd get in. The poor woman in front of us left the line a few minutes before 2 feeling like she wasn't going to make it and it wasn't worth waiting. Just a few minutes later they came around and closed the line off 1 family behind us. We barely made it before his break. Otherwise, this picture would not exist at all. We are not the type of people who would enjoy killing time at the mall. Good thing we didn't have to. When Rory got up to Santa, the woman taking the photos wasn't quite ready for us, so I put him down on the floor next to Santa and we looked at the free coloring books that Santa was giving out. He was excited about the idea of "reading" a book and handed several of them (all the same book) to Santa, so when the lady was back behind her camera, we threw him onto Santa's lap and said "Have Santa read you a book". He looked a bit unhappy at first, but then he was just so confused by us stepping back and him being on this guy's lap and the lady behind the camera yelling to him with some crazy colorful, parrot puppet that he just got a confused look on his face and sat there staring. Finally we coaxed a tiny smirk out of him and figured that was about the best we were going to do in the situation. All in all it was probably only 30 minutes of our day, and I'm glad we have a photo with Santa to show for it, but next year we will definitely be seeking out a less Mall-like atmosphere for our Santa photos.