Santa Baby

Thursday night was Christmas on 5th St. at Baylor and the first Santa sighting of the season! Last year, we took all the kids to meet Santa, but this year they were older (and, dare I say, cuter?) than last time. I guess we've started a tradition of having CB&M wear matching dresses and Mase coordinating. This was last year...

I was fully prepared for Cara to HATE Santa and scream and cry, but as we were waiting in line, I kept telling her how nice Santa was, how all the other kids were sitting on his lap, how he was really sweet, etc. We taught her in line to say "Ho ho ho!" and she liked that. But when it was our turn, things were a little different. We got about 2 feet from Santa, and Cara turned into a stage-5 clinger. Like, death grip on my shoulders. I put her on Santa's lap and stepped back to snap a few pictures. She hated every second of it, just as expected.

It's ok, because this is totally a phase for the next few years. One day she'll like to sit on Santa's lap, and we'll get that super-sweet smiling photo. But if it doesn't happen until she's 5, that's OK.

We moved her to Mrs. Claus to sit with Murphee, which was a little better, and took some more pics of the kids together. The girls were a little unsure, and Cara whimpered some more, but these were OK.

Once we weathered the storm, we walked around the SUB for a bit and took a few more pictures. It was COLD outside (the beginning of a big cold front/storm for the weekend), so we didn't go outside to see the big tree, but we did see the one in the SUB.

Then it was Aunt Cayce's turn to jump in with all the kids, which is becoming quite the feat--the girls weigh about 50 lbs together, none of them want to look at the camera, they want to pull Mase's hair, etc.

By the end of things, they were over it. I LOVE Cara's face in this picture. It's kind of bored, but you can see a fine line of attitude forming. Like, "I'm done here, let's go home, or I'm going to throw a fit." Ha!

We went home and put on Santa jammies, read some books and went to bed. Even Po got snuggly.

We have a couple more trips to see other Santas planned, and I'm expecting the same results. But it's all part of having a toddler. I think it's kind of funny, and I know we'll laugh at these pictures in the years to come.