What I want for Christmas

Much of this day we spent lazing around my parents house while everyone took naps in front of the fireplace and the freezing wind gusted outside like a tornado. I spent my day packing our truck to head to Eric's mom and dad's house for the second leg of our Christmas tour.

Check out Lincoln getting ready for his visit to Grandma and Grandpa W.'s house. Eric's parents just happen to live approximately 5 minutes away from the mall and my mind was still on overdrive about getting a 2007 Christmas picture of both of my kids with Santa Claus. As you may recall, Elaina wasn't particularly a fan of his when she had seen him last.

So what if it was only 2 days before Christmas? So what if the mall may be jam packed with last minute shoppers? So what if the wind chill outside felt like 30 below zero? And so what if there was a line to Santa's mall throne 27 snot-nosed, crumb covered, whiney kids deep? I wanted to go. See how it wasn't even about the kids anymore? I wanted Elaina to experience Santa. I wanted to prop my kids on some strange impostor-Santa's lap for 3 minutes so I could fork over $20 for two sheets of the same pose. I wanted to capture memories of Lincoln's first Christmas while his sister was evident in the same room. This is Christmas for Glory's Sake!!

And so, I did my homework with Elaina. We discussed what Santa looked like, paying close attention to every color and structure detail. I told her that Santa is the one who brings toys and hands out candy canes. And several times, I made mention that there would be no toys for her if Santa didn't know what she wanted him to bring. Here's how our homework panned out for us:

I realize that Elaina appears to look somewhat hesitant in this picture, but since I was only allowed ONE PICTURE (which was made very clear by Santa's minimum wage "helper's") this is what I got. When we arrived at the mall, I was surprised and pleased to find that it wasn't especially busy. In fact, when we arrived at Santa's throne, he wasn't there, nor did we find a line of any sort. Santa was on a potty break. Elaina got to watch him as he arrived a quick minute later and positioned himself in his seat. I let her down from my arms with some encouraging words and off she went to see Santa on her very own! Yay!! Yay! I got my wish! She did great and without hesitation!

Once I went to help her down (she could have sat there for an hour perhaps) she looked up at Santa and very earnestly said, "Can I have a gun now?" Whooooaaaa, okay, it seems as though in my preparation with her, I apparently didn't make it very clear that Santa would be coming two nights later. And the child still wants her pink gun. Hmmm..... I wonder if the elves make pink guns these days?