Santa Pictures

We had been waiting to visit Santa. I am not really sure what I was waiting for. Maybe for someone to call me and say that this year the line would be shorter and I would not be exhausted by the time we finally saw Santa. Well, no call came, so I asked my older two kids to go with me. I have no idea why they said yes. Well, my son said he didn't hear the visiting Santa part about going out...I am sure I did not stress that part. I really wanted their help. Everything was going fine until we got up to the very short line and saw that Santa was going on a dinner break in five minutes and wouldn't be back for an hour and ten minutes. WHAT???!!! Santa eats? So we had to find something to do for an hour and ten minutes with three little kids. We actually did fine for a half hour, though I wound up buying several things that I didn't want and now have to return. My older kids were great. My son finally went and stood in line again while we walked around with the kids. Unfortunately, there was a LONG line of people already there in front of us. You would have thought that the people who worked there would have told us that we could skip the line since we just missed Santa (and had three little ones) but they didn't. Anyway, I stood in the hot-line-of-people-who-were-standing-way-to-close-to-eachother while my kids walked around the mall. They finally came back when we got closer to the front and that is when I think time must have stopped. We waited for hours. Maybe it was days. All I know is that Brayden was sitting on the dirty mall floor at one point and my older son kept trying to get him to get up. I finally told him to let him do it. At that point I was so tired that I wanted to sit on that same dirty floor. I almost gave up. I think there were two families in front of us and I really wanted to go. We were all hungry, tired and worn out. I told Dakota that no matter how hard college ever got, it couldn't be harder than standing in line with three kids to see Santa. She completely agreed. Luckily, she and Colton seemed to have summoned new found energy and were really helping. Because, of course, Brayden, Brookelyn and Sasha weren't just calmly sitting there. Sasha was pulling at our hands, pointing away from the line and saying, "Go." Brookelyn was completely LAYING on the ground on her stomach. Brayden was quickly falling apart. We had been there waiting for TWO HOURS by the time we saw Santa. Luckily, Brayden and Brookleyn went right to him. He talked to them about what they wanted for a minute and then once they were on his lap I put Sasha on it too. I think the picture turned out pretty good. There should be pictures of the parents at the beginning of the line and again after they see Santa. This holiday ritual is not for the weak hearted. I took these pictures while in line waiting, just in case one of them (or all of them) cried while sitting on Santa. I told Brayden that Santa was going to ask him what he wanted for Christmas. (I don't ask my kids to make a list for Santa because they don't really watch much tv with commercials and don't really know what is out there. ) Brayden had asked me to tell Santa that he wanted a toy we had just seen at the Disney store while we were waiting. He wound up telling Santa himself and Brookleyn told Santa she wanted an elephant. I'm not sure where she came up with that. Both Brayden and Brookelyn smiled for pictures while on Santa's lap. Sasha didn't smile, but she didn't cry and did sit on his lap, which was amazing. She is a brave little girl. When we were finished with the pictures, Brayden looked at Dakota and asked her if Santa thought he was nice. Dakota said she thought he did. Then he said, "Did he see how I was acting in line?" He is always trying to figure out how close he can get to crossing the line. Even with Santa. As I look at the pictures I tok,I realize that they do not show the pain of that experience at all. I should have taken pictures of the the kids rolling on the ground. Next year I will. Of course, we laughed about it after we got something to eat.