Visit with Santa

We took Katie to see Santa at the mall yesterday. I know, I know... I shouldn't have waited so long to do it, but I really didn't want to take her all by myself, so I had to wait until Phil could come with me. And since he started his vacation yesterday, that was really our first chance to do it. When we got to the Santa place (I can't really think of the right word here... Land? Exhibit? Habitat?) it was just about 3:30 and they had just closed the line so that Santa could go to dinner at 5:00. They told us they would reopen at 6:00 when Santa got back from dinner. Phil and I decided that it would be best to just go ahead and get in line so that we would be the first ones in line when Santa got back from dinner a mere 2 1/2 hours later.

Phil and Sarah kept our place in line while I took Emily and Katie with me to go rent a stroller (because I forgot to take mine out of my trunk when I took my car in to the shop). Of course, the mall was so crowded, and apparently no four-year-old child in this town has the ability to walk through the mall on his own two feet, that they were all out of strollers. So, I had to carry my 20 1/2 pound daughter through the mall to Children's Place to shop for a couple of last minute Christmas gifts for my cousin's live-in boyfriend's daughters who will be joining the family for Christmas this year.

Anyhow, on my way back to the Santa place, I stopped by the stroller place to see if they had any yet, and they did. And my tired arms thanked them. When we finally got back to the line, I found that Phil and a couple of people in line behind him had been let into the "before dinner" line, so we only had about another 30-45 minutes left to wait in line. Here is how Katie's picture turned out:
Katie wasn't quite sure about Santa. We had been trying to get her used to him by showing her pictures and letting her play with a Santa stuffed doll so she wouldn't be terrified and screaming like a lot of children this age are. And she wasn't terrified and screaming, but she did get very shy. Maybe she was just in awe of him. Sort of like when you finally meet your favorite rock star and you lose your ability to speak and just stand there staring at them. Just look at the cute little face she made. This was as much of a smile as she was willing to give us.
So, anyway, now we have that all taken care of, it's starting to feel a little more like Christmas. But I still have so much to do, and there are only 2 1/2 more shopping days left before the big day. And the gifts that I have already gotten all still need to be wrapped. Yay!