Santa baby

My mom has 21 consecutive years of Santa photos that she puts out every year at Christmas. She made my brothers and I take a photo with him every year until I got married. It's so funny to see the hairdos, clothes, and the tears (in the younger years). So of course I am following suit and requiring my children to do the same thing. This is the first year that I thought we had a chance at a winning photo. Justin talks about Santa all the time, last year was the "crying" year, as each of my brothers and I were at that 1.5 year old stage, and he now loves to say cheese for the camera.

We get to the Galleria and realize Santa is gone for 30 minutes. So after going up and down the escalators 50 times, I realize a line of mommies are already lining up. Justin is waving at Santa the entire way. He still has no clue who he is, and I haven't encouraged the fact that he will be receiving gifts on Christmas Day, much less from Santa. He's just a guy in a red suit. For now.

So it's our turn. I have my camera in hand, trying to fix Justin's hair and collar at the same time. I'm reminding myself to pull his pants down close to his shoes so 3 inches of socks won't be showing. I'm literally breaking a sweat preparing for the 2 minutes we have with Santa, all to get a great photo, the only photo, of Christmas 2008. And my son starts crying. I am stunned - where is cheerful child waving at the bearded man? I put my hysterical son in Santa's lap. And he keeps crying. I tell him to say cheese like we practiced. He then realizes he's crying and seems embarrassed. He then has a somber face with tears still streaming down his face. So I go brush off the tears, and then I go for the last straw on how to get my son to change gears. I tickle him. And this is what we got:




If you look closely, then you can see watery eyes. But a couple of tickles and my son was happy Justin again. We take two photos and I tell them it's a wrap. Justin waves at Santa as we leave, almost forgetting about the tearful initial encounter at first. Kids are so unpredictable.

Last year's photo, in between screams of terror and separation anxiety



I guess I didn't scan the first year's photo, but here's the chubb at 3 1/2 months with ole Santa.


So I'm pleased. Maybe we're done crying over Santa? Who knows. He will be at our neighborhood party on Thursday, so we'll see how this friendship continues over the week.
HO HO HO