Our Trip to See Santa

I was talking to my Grandma on the phone last night and she was telling me about how she and my Grandpa go walking at the mall every day and right now Santa's there.  She told me a hilarious story about a little girl who was there to see Santa one day last week.  She was with her big brother and they were trying to get their picture taken, but the girl kept crying.  So, Santa let the girl sit in the chair with her brother and he knelt down partially behind the chair so she couldn't see him.  He put his hand up to his mouth as if to say, "shhh," and they snapped the picture.  My grandma went on and on about what the girl was wearing, how the mom was trying to get this done all by herself and looked so frazzled, how it was such a good idea for the Santa to kneel down like that.....you get the idea.

Anyway, so one thing I had on our list of fun things to do in December was to have Ava's picture taken with Santa for the first time.  Talking to my Grandma just reminded me of it and so we did it today!  We got there at 1:45 and saw that there was a sign posted on the cash register that said, "Santa will be back at 2:15."  Immediately I started worrying, thinking that it wouldn't work, Ava would melt down, and we would have to leave.  I figured that she would be ready for a nap at 2:00 pm, since she last woke up at 12:30 pm.  But we decided to stick it out and give it a try.  It was hard enough just getting her dressed and out of the house.  We were at least going to attempt to get her picture taken since we were already there.

I got the second spot in line behind a really nice, young couple who had a 19-month old named Paisley, who quickly made friends with Ava and kept saying, "Ava, Ava, Ava."  Jimi went Christmas shopping for my uncle, since he got his name in our annual name-drawing.  Fast-forward 35 minutes later, Jimi is done shopping, and Santa finally appears!  By this time there is an enormous line of people behind us.  I'm telling you, I don't know how those parents were going to do it without their kids having a fit.  It would have taken hours before they would get to the last person in line. 

We watched as Paisley got her picture taken.  The second she saw Santa she started crying.  Her mom had to hold her, her dad sat beside them, and Santa did the kneeling-down thing that my Grandma had described so perfectly.  Then they were done and it was our turn.  As Paisley's parents were picking out which pictures they wanted we quickly decided that we would let Ava sit on Santa's lap all by herself.  I didn't think she would cry because she's really not to that age yet.  She does so well at daycare and has never really freaked out when someone new holds her. 

Jimi put her on Santa's lap, I fixed her dress and hair, then we just watched while the camerawoman did her best job to get Ava to smile.  Ava did really well, but never smiled.  Not even the crack of a smile.  She sat really still and looked from Jimi, to the camerawoman, to me.  She didn't even really turn around and look at Santa.  At one point, he cradled her in his hands so she had to look at him and she just looked confused.  We did not pick that picture.  The ones we got are adorable, though.  She looks like a doll.  Her skin is so pretty and her hair looks much longer and a little darker now and I just love it.  Obviously I'm biased, but our baby girl is just beautiful!