Santa and Ty

December 2, 2008

Tyler and I kicked off the month of December, along with the Christmas season, by making a trip to the mall to see Santa Claus. After our experience with the weird Easter Bunny in March, I wasn't exactly sure what we were going to get.

What I did know, however, was that my child had the perfect little outfit for visiting the jolly old fellow, but he didn't have a single pair of shoes in sight that would fit or coordinate. So, being the strategic mom that I am, I put black socks on his little feet, and planned to buy shoes at the mall prior to the special picture moment.

We parked outside of JC Penney because I knew I wanted to do some shopping there later. I hit their children's department first with zero luck. Then, we headed to Payless. I figured I might score something cute and inexpensive fairly easily there. Not so much. Frustrated, I headed over to Dillard's. Lo and behold, they had the perfect black shoes in just the right size. Once I had both shoes on Tyler's feet, laced up and all, I checked the price. $28. No sale sign. No coupon in sight. I nearly fell over. Now, $28 isn't that much to pay for some things in this world (or, for example, a good pair of tennis shoes that your child will wear every day). But, for a pair of last minute shoes that might be worn twice before they don't fit anymore, it seemed a little steep. But, I didn't have a choice, so I handed the lady my debit card and sprinted for the Pretzel Time where I soothed my growling tummy and my sticker-shocked self with pretzel bites and a Cherry Coke. Nothin' finer.

Once the shoe dilemma was solved, we were off to the staged North Pole. There wasn't a single person there except for Santa and his one elf. I must say, that's one of the benefits of being a stay-at-home mom--you can easily avoid lots of crowds just by doing things during the day while everyone else is working. But, I digress.

Santa Claus was very nice, although I thought he was somewhat creepy. It made me wonder if they do background checks on these people. Regardless, we got a few really cute pictures. Tyler didn't act scared and he didn't cry, but he looked like a deer in the headlights the whole time. It made me laugh. I bought two pictures to document the occasion because the first one was my favorite, and I knew Danny would favor the second one. I was just happy that our first visit with Santa was relatively successful. Next year could be another story...

Once we got home from a long day of visiting Santa and Christmas shopping, Tyler traded his cute overalls for some pajama pants and helped me make dinner. He had quite a pot of soup going...

Believe it or not, instead of coming up with another piece of food for his pot, he pulled out his guitar. I suppose he needed an instrumental interlude to accompany his fine dining preparations.