Meeting Santa

This weekend Matt and I took the kiddos to Jordan Creek to finish up a little Christmas shopping, make a pit stop at the play area, and visit Santa... Katherine loves visiting Santa, but Caleb.... well that's another story. He has no problem asking for the much coveted "train table" from a distance, but sitting on some strange guy's lap .... yea, that's not happening!

When it was our turn to talk to Santa, Katherine ran up to him and threw her little arms around his neck so he could lift her up on his lap. While he talked to her about being a good girl and asked her what she wanted, Caleb just watched from the sidelines. He wasn't going anywhere near this strange man with crazy white hair and a goofy outfit.

Katherine told Santa that she wanted a new sled, a dancing doll, an iPod (yea right!), a new "big girl" watch and a computer. Here she is charming the big guy! Check out his outfit.... he's the nicest Santa out there (I'm totally serious) but man.... what's up with the shirt???



When Santa realized that Caleb was scared of him, he had me walk Caleb over so that he could get really close and talk to him. He asked Caleb what he wanted, and then talked... and talked... and talked about train tables after I indicated that he'd be getting one. It was great. He really knew ALL the age appropriate toys for both kids.

After a couple of minutes of toy chatter, he lifted Katherine off his lap and slid down to the ground and told her to sit in his chair while he sat beside her on the floor. He then told me to put Caleb on the far side of the chair and he read them "'Tis the Night Before Christmas" and showed them pictures of all of his reindeer. If you look in the pictures, you'll see some jingle bells on the arm of the chair next to Caleb. Santa told the kids that those belong to Prancer and that they should be listening for them on the rooftop on Christmas Eve.

Caleb was instantly a changed man!! He is a HUGE Santa fan and by the time we left, it was hugs and high-5's all around. What a difference he made for Caleb. I've got to tell you... Both Matt and I were amazed with the time he took with the kids. Literally we were with him almost 10 minutes. He was GREAT!