It's Santa Time

So we (my Husband and I) set out a couple of days ago. A mission of Christmas importance.

The Santa Picture....

We gave it no thought. Last year was a breeze right (NOT!!) Why should this be harder??
Well fist off it's amazing how we seem to forget how really difficult things can be.
Seriously, how in such a short period of time do we just up and erase our memories of the bad and frustrating things that we endure as parents??
Because ... we have this granger idea of what we WANT it to be. We hold dear in our minds this intangible "Hallmark Moment"
We just think well... It won't be so bad. We'll do all our preparation, go in the right timing and it will be Great! Right??
Yeah.. well here is where it always goes bad. We think about this as if we are working with solid consistent people. They are little and fly by the seats of their sweet little pants. How can we know what is going to happen??? THEY don't even know!!

So Tuesday night we sailed out of the house at 3:30 figuring the mall will be okay and we'll sail right in and pay good old Saint Nick a visit. We got there... we saw him... it went well, bad.
Neither Johnpaul nor Nathaniel would smile or really even talk to Santa.
They both seemed deflated and zoned out.
And when I sat Christian on his lap you'd swear Santa was on fire. The kid just screamed and screamed! I know this is a pretty normal reaction but he believe it or not he is the very First of mine to cry on Santas lap.

Okay... so we looked at the pictures and you can guess that they sucked. So we thought we'd go away and loosen up the kids a bit.
When we returned... Santa was just leaving for dinner. So.. rather than drag it out, we left. Strike One.

Then comes Wednesday... I made all the calls had all the conversations trying to get the day in affair so this would or could go more smoothly.
We arrived.. everyone is in a great mood!
We join the line.. only a few people ahead of us... Looking good!
It's our turn!
We go up and greet Santa and immediately it's obvious that Christian is NOT having it.
So the photographer and wish woman waves us and suggests the two older do their thing and we will ambush him onto Santas lap. Santa in agreement we go for it!

So it's not perfect.. But it's still super cute!

We survived yet another Family Milestone. We will I'm certain forget the craziness of it and be again all ramped up for a repeat next year. What ever.. we got it done.