A Picture with Santa

Well, with one week to go before Christmas, Cilla decided she wanted to take her turn and "have her picture taken with Santa."  After two failed attempts, and by that I mean I gave her the opportunity twice while we were at the mall.  She respectfully declined and we went on celebrating the true meaning of Christmas.  No big deal.  I refused to be THAT mom that had the picture of my child screaming in Santa's lap.  Why do that to them?!  Well, we were finishing up our Christmas shopping at the mall on the Saturday before Christmas and as we passed Santa and all the happy children getting pictures taken with him, she thought it looked like a lot of fun.  Of course she did on the Saturday before Christmas!!!  The line was about 20 kids deep and we had all but rolled out of bed in order to beat the crowds.  So, I promised we would come back when it wasn't so busy. 

This is where I failed as a parent.  Rather than going first thing in the week and first thing in the morning, we didn't make it back to the mall until mid-week or until school was out for Christmas break.  Oh, and did  I mention we went at lunch time?  Because we did!  So, the line was even longer than it was when we were there the previous Saturday!  By golly, we were getting in line and getting our picture made with Santa.  So we hopped in line and I reaffirmed with Cilla that this was what she wanted to do.  She sweetly said, "yes".  So, we stood in line for about 45 minutes and once we got to the front of the line she looked at me and said, "I don't want to sit on Santa's lap!"  What in the world?!?!?!  I calmly told her that she had told mommy and daddy that this is what she wanted to do and that we were going to go talk to Santa.  

 And this is what we got.  They tried hard to sell us the pictures that they took but we couldn't bite the bullet.  It took everything in her to get out this "cheese".  She got in his lap and did what we asked of her and NO more.  She would not tell him what she wanted for Christmas.  She would not smile for the camera.  She just sat there.  Just like we asked!

Getting her pep talk from dad!

So, the lesson is...

Go see Santa early!  Nothing good comes from standing in line for 45 minutes!