Hi everyone!
Christmastime brings so many things: good times with family, great food, a chance to make someone's day merry and bright and crappy pictures with Santa Claus.
When Toot was born, I looked forward to the day when I could take her to see Santa. It was easy the first year as she was only 1 month old. (We like to go in late November to miss the crazy crowd.) And being just a month old, Toot obediently sat there while the photographer snapped away:
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2008 |
The next year, Toot was just over a year old and things didn't go so smoothly. Her and I were out and on a whim we stopped to see Santa. Toot promptly freaked out. Which really, you can't blame her. I had spent months screaming, "STRANGER DANGER!" only to plunk her down on a strange man's lap and demand she ask for presents. Parenting is awesome. The best part (or worst part as I like to call it) was they made me be in the picture and I'm so thankful that my child has this horrible picture of me to remember this lovely day of horror, tears and emotional scarring:
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2009 |
The year after that, Toot was dressed to the nines,we talked about meeting Santa for a week and I even took my husband, mom and dad along in an effort to create as much excitement as possible. Toot wouldn't go near him. So the next week her and I were again, out and about which is why you see her dressed in a hot pink Hello Kitty tutu instead of the holiday-themed outfit she originally wore for the picture that never happened.
She also bogarted the Elmo doll the photographer was using to try and get her to smile and from the looks of it, strangled him. She still refused to sit on Santa's lap so he had to sneak around the back. At least I didn't have to be in it this time:
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2010 |
Cut to this year. Now we not only have Toot but Zippy's in the picture and at 6 months old, I was worried we'd have Christmas War on our hands with the both of them. I dressed them up, took them in and prayed to all that was holy to please please please, give me ONE good Santa picture.
And guess what? They were AWESOME! Both the girls were enchanted, Toot was smiling, Zippy stared adoringly at Santa and we got the perfect shot. Sort of:
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2011 Take One |
Behold! The perfect Santa picture, in all it's blurry glory! WTH?! The guy tried to convince me that it would "print out not blurry" which of course it did NOT. They offered to take it again at which point Toot screamed, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" We finally convinced her but she wouldn't smile and Zippy was getting restless. Santa, being the smart man that he is, suggested he "read" with them and take the picture that way. Which was a great idea except the photographer apparently was confused by the words, "auto focus" and the picture was still blurry. Not as blurry but blurry:
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2011 Take Two |
So there you have it. Christmas does not want my children to see Santa. I guess there could be some deeper lesson here for me like the reason for the season, being thankful and all that but I think I'll stick with Christmas hates me.
God bless us everyone!