He Sees You When You're ... Nice

There are mall santas and then there is the one and only real Santa. Each year since Katherine was 2, we've made the trek to see the real Santa. Will's radar has been set on high since December first - each day he asks "Am I being nice?" Usually , I can say "yes," but once or twice I've had to set him straight. His response thus far has been, "Okay, I'll be nice now." He's never come out and told me why he's asking, but it has to be the guy in red.

So, we got to the right place, and the sign said there was a 2 hour wait. Two hours is a looooong time with a 4 year old, even if he does have three older sisters who don't mind doing his bidding. I stood in line for the first 20 minutes while everyone else stayed in the van and ate the sandwiches that David had packed. Then we all stood in line together for the 45 minutes while the line barely moved - Santa was feeding his reindeer. Once we got the point in the line where we could see the door to the inner sanctum, we let the kids wander a bit. They filled the next hour with all kinds of activities.

Then we got really close - and the kids did their happy dance!




We saw this sign...


Then we entered Santa's room. At this point the wait no longer mattered, we could see the man. Parents were happy, kids were smiling, and babies were screaming. It was great!

We finally saw the man himself...and his snow princess. No one sees Santa without first meeting the snow princess. This one had been meeting people for so long that she'd kicked off her shoes.

All afternoon - in the van, in the line - the boy told us what he wanted Santa to bring - a movie and some books. Once he got up there I could barely hear his response when Santa asked him the big question. "What would you like me to bring you, Will?"

We wished Santa a Merry Christmas, got our tree, and headed to dinner. Tonight we dined with the Fab Four.