Smile for Santa

We took the kids to visit Santa Claus last night.  Sadly, I only have the professional pictures, so nothing that can be posted here.  And the company who runs the old Frederick and Nelson’s Santa has become absolutely adamant that people cannot use their own personal cameras for a snapshot.  Boo.

We took Grandma and Auntie with us to see Santa, as well… it is Auntie’s last year to sit on his lap for a picture, since once she’s 18 and in college, she’s off the hook.  Unfortunately, Grandma and Gichan are down a car (there was an accident yesterday that has probably totaled one of their vehicles), so we packed everyone in our minivan to go see Santa.

Ane, Tad and Rerun went first, and did very well.  Rerun had fallen asleep in the car, so he was still a smidge sleepy and confused, so he wasn’t as smiley as he could have been.  But he wasn’t crying, which was a big improvement over his sister’s first couple of Santa pictures, and his brother’s second and third Santa pictures.  Rerun has the benefit of excited older siblings, so I’m sure that will help in the next couple of years.

Ane was all business when it came to Santa, and she wrote out a short list on her note paper, which she had him read and then stuck in his mailbox.  I was tempted to keep it, but since it was a short list and she hadn’t decorated it or actually written a letter, I left it there.  It was more like a grocery list of gifts she’d like to get.  Tad kept calling Santa “Christmas” and eventually was prompted by Auntie to ask for Star Wars Legos.  Rerun was too little for a candy cane, but was very content to watch his siblings and their antics.

When it was Auntie’s turn to have her picture taken, Tad took matters into his own hands.  Having seen how one of the assistants had tried to get Rerun to smile using a little stuffed Cookie Monster doll, he promptly picked it up, stood by the camera and said, “Auntie!  Auntie!  Smile!  Look over here!”

Then he ran to her and made Cookie Monster kiss her hands, and then he ran back to the camera.  Auntie was laughing so hard that she could barely compose herself for the picture.

I looked over at the assistants, who were getting a real kick out of Tad.  “You got an opening for a helper elf?”  I asked.  “His dad’s unemployed, so maybe he could earn his keep for a bit!”

“We’ve never had a kid do that before,” one of the girls said with a smile.

That’s Tad – making people smile and creating stories that Santa and his elves will tell for years to come.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 3rd, 2010 at 1:36 am and is filed under Children, Family, Holidays.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed and Both comments and pings are currently closed.