Santa.

The last place I went to be in December is at the mall. Instead of waiting another week and going when we could go mid week, I decided to go today and get N's Santa picture done. Now in years past it's never went over well. We always end up with a photo of her with the deer in headlights look just before full out crying happens.

This year I tried to work up the whole idea of Santa, how he was going to bring her presents and showed pictures, cartoons etc. Each time though she'd tell me "no Daddy brings gifts" (which makes me laugh since I do all the gift buying) or that she did not want to see Santa. /sigh

We got there around 11 and the line up was not too bad, I think we got to Santa in about 30m? What is nice about Chinook is that there are 3 elves in an area that has a tv playing cartoons/movies and puzzles to amuse your kids. So she spent the whole time there playing while I stood in line.

This yr, as a change in her usually demeanor she did not freak as soon as she saw Santa, but would not go near him, so Owen picked her up and sat down with her. You can sit with your child at MM, but at Chinook you can actually be in the picture.

Anywho, she was not too pleased to even be sitting on Owen's lap, and the first picture we got was a bit of a scowl which started to turn into a freak out. I saw it coming, reached in my pocket and pulled out the bribery, the Candy Cane. :p She calmed down right away and we were able to get our first non crying/deer in headlights Santa picture! Yay!

Oh and the woman that was distracting her to look at the camera was really good too. She straightened her pants, I fixed her socks and her hair. I wished we'd adjusted her dress a bit but oh well. I was so worried she was going to cry that we were working fast at fixing her outfit. heh

The out-take:

This is what we typically get. heh