We had a wonderful visit with Santa at Allen/Fairview (in the Real Bookstore) last year, so we decided to go back again. We talked to Naomi all about Santa. We waited until after Olivia's morning nap and before both girls' afternoon naps, got in the virtual Santa line, then we got them all dressed up in their cute coordinated outfits, and headed out.
Click here to read all about our Santa trip last year and to see our wonderful photos.
This year was a different story. Long story short, our pictures are "classic".
I'm not sure if Naomi would have cried on Santa's lap regardless (probably as that's just typical of her age group), but there were a few things that I felt didn't go as well this year.
I forgot to put bows in the girls' hair. Not a big deal, but still... I was a bit bummed about it.
Again, we got in the virtual line, but this year the wait in the physical line was much longer. Something in the organization must have changed. I took Naomi to the kid area of the bookstore, which is really nice, and we worked on puzzles, etc. After she tired of that, she just ran around the store and I'm pretty sure that was a sign of the beginning of the end.
At this point, it was hard for me to wrangle Naomi to re-focus her back on Santa time. By the time I did, we got pushed back one more person in line and had to wait for a crying child in front of us to get her pic done.
Santa's handlers were not as good as last year. Last year, we got very good instruction about putting her in Santa's lap, etc. This year, nothing more than it's your turn. I'm guessing some tips for putting two kids on Sana's lap would have been helpful. Naomi started to walk up to Santa, but halted and started to freak. She proceeded to freak more when Brian went to put Olivia in Santa's lap (she is very protective of her little baby sister). Anyway, wheels fell off and we got what we got and a few lessons learned.
Plan for next year:
1) Go before Thanksgiving and before the lines.
2) Same Santa and same virtual line.
3) Back both kiddos into Santa's lap and back away slowly smiling.
4) Cross fingers, pray, etc.
5) Be happy with our pic even when both kids are crying in it despite all of our efforts for a successful Santa pic.
MERRY CHRISTMAS! HO HO HO!
3 comments:
Love it! Yes, the pictures are definitely classic! And don't worry, even if Naomi is pictureperfect, Olivia will have her turn for her "classic" picture ;)
They're so cute though!
I'm with you! I'm going before Thanksgiving next year!!
I've 'been there' with Jacob.... It's always a toss up on how they are going to act.
But.... the 'classic Santa pics' really are priceless. the 1st and 2nd year that I took Jacob to see Santa, the child looks to ticked off at me- those have become my favorite :-)
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