Santa Visit

So yesterday we made our annual visit to Santa. I give my kids one shot at the big guy (and I get one shot at a cute picture), and then we call it good for a year. Now, Tyler's getting old enough that visiting Santa is fun for him. Sure enough, the only problem we had was getting him to slow down when telling Santa what he wanted. Here he is giving his list:

And although I knew Zachary would be nervous, I figured he'd probably follow Tyler's brave example and at least sit on Santa's lap without problem. I couldn't be certain, though, once he was on Santa's lap whether or not he would say a word. My family gets quite a kick out of how he will just stare you down sometimes instead of talking to you. But he did talk to Santa. I think the following picture is proof. :)

Now the gamble in the whole event was Shayla. I didn't even know what to predict she would do. She's been a little 'fraidy cat for most of her life as far as strangers go, and she was classifying stranger as anyone not in our immediate household. Lately she's been opening up a lot more with other people and has figured out that some of them will even pick her up a lot more than Mommy does. But I figured she'd still be nervous around such a strange stranger. I was wrong. When Zachary was on Santa's lap, Shayla walked right up to him and looked up as if to say, "I think it's my turn?" Of course, when we put her on his lap I think she realized that it may be a little scary, so she went into some unknown "zone" and tuned us all out. I tried to get her attention to take a picture, but we couldn't get her to even look my way until they rang some jingle bells behind me to get her attention. However, she didn't even flinch! I couldn't believe it.

Last year she wasn't old enough to even care, but we have two classic pictures -- one of her pulling Santa's beard while he's looking at us taking a picture, and the other of her and Santa looking each other like they're checking each other out.

This year Santa was wearing a real Santa outfit, too. The past few years we've found several Santas with Christmas-themed shirts and suspenders, but not the whole sha-bang. One year we even looked in three different places, and each Santa was wearing a different Christmas-themed shirt. What??? Anyway, this year's pictures made me happy -- especially since we had to wait in a very short line to get them. And of course the only reason we have to get the annual pictures with Santa is because my scrapbook wouldn't be complete without them!!!