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Continuing our holiday-themed weekend, we took Claire to meet Santa for the first time on Sunday. Actually, we tried to take her Saturday evening, but thought the line was too long and decided to try again later. Little did we know that the line was actually short compared to what we found on Sunday. But, we had made up our minds that our child was going to sit on Santa’s lap - even if she really could care less.

We got in line around 1:30 pm and were promised that we would be served before Santa took his break at 3:00 pm. Eric was a real trooper and agreed to stay in line with Claire while I ran off to do some errands. I seriously have the best husband in the entire world!

While waiting in line, Claire fell asleep in the BabyBjorn, then was moved to her stroller, waking up about 20 minutes before it was her turn - and hungry! There was one family in line behind us (they cut the line off before Santa’s break), and we let them ahead of us so Claire could finish her bottle. Right as she gulped down the last swig of formula, we were informed that Santa had to pee. What luck. So while everyone else had plenty of time to be coaxed into smiling for the perfect picture, we had about 2 minutes to take a photo of a bladder-challenged Santa and a not-so-happy Claire.

We didn’t get great results, but Claire actually managed a smile or two when Santa started bouncing her up and down in his arms. Below are the two best photos that I took. The “professional” one was a bit better - not fuzzy like the one of her smiling below. So, our Santa experience summary: 2 visits to the mall, 1 1/2 hours waiting in line, a grumpy Santa, and $20 for a photo. I’m seriously considering investing in a Santa suit for Eric to wear for the years to come…