Santa Clause is Coming to Town...

A couple weeks ago, we made a trip to the Flatirons Crossing Mall where we stood in line for 45 minutes so we could get a picture of our precious son with Santa Clause. This is Tyler's 3rd Christmas, but we have never made a visit to see Santa Clause, until this year. This being our first experience with this, we made a couple mistakes. First of all, we didn't realize that we could bring our own camera and take pictures ourselves...big mistake. Second, we didn't let Tyler see other kids sitting on Santa's lap before it was his turn. This was not entirely our own fault. The way the area is set up, there are trees all around where Santa sits so there really is no option to watch the other kids as they take their turns on Santa's lap.

We built up the trip all day long, and Tyler knew who the jolly old elf was, so he was really happy and excited when his daddy led him up to Santa and placed him on his lap. Oh, if only the girl had snapped the picture 5 seconds after Tyler was seated. He had the biggest grin and was so pleased with himself that he was with Santa...and then he looked at me and slowly looked to his right and saw the strange man with a huge beard...and realized he was there alone. Then he started saying "mommy" in a nervous voice while reaching out to me.

Santa was a good sport though and tried to sing, "If you're happy and you know it" while clapping Tyler's hands together. His helper elf was also trying desperately to get our son to smile...but to no avail. I was standing by the girl at the camera and was pointing to it and pleading with him to look at the camera and smile. Needless to say, she only got 4 or 5 pictures out of the 45 seconds Tyler sat there and we had an easy choice to make. This picture is the only decent one they got and so of course, was the one we picked...all it all it isn't terrible, considering that he was extremely nervous and ready to get off the strange man's lap!

Oh, well, better luck next year!!