Visiting Santa

Before we get too far into 2011, I figured I better get my Christmas posts done!

Because of our schedule with Emma & Dougie, we have to be intentional about when we take the kids to see Santa. We had planned on taking them to the mall in Augusta one evening. But since Steven doesn't get home until 5, the thought of driving an hour and then facing the crowds just didn't appeal to any of us. So we decided to take the kids to the much smaller mall in Statesboro. As a bonus, the Chick-fil-A was offering free chicken sandwiches to everyone wearing a Santa hat, so we enjoyed some yummy, free food before seeing Santa.

When we arrived at the mall, there was NO ONE in line. Seriously, we walked right up without any wait! We were all bracing ourselves for Asher's reaction. I was sure this would be the year that he would be screaming in the picture. You can't really tell in this picture, but when Emma tried to put him in Santa's lap, he went stiff as a board.

Santa sweetly recommended putting him in big brother's lap. I didn't really expect Emma to be in the picture this year but she told me she wanted to, which made me so happy.

Since we were the only ones there, Santa took his time talking with the kids. And instead of having a chair, he had a kind of love seat so all the kids could sit and chat with him. Notice Asher is doing the "if I don't look at him, he doesn't exist" tactic.

Yep, he's still there.

I love this. Caleb so enjoyed talking with Santa. He really understood it all this year. So precious!

And when it was all done, we had a beautiful picture without anyone screaming and lots of precious memories!