Jolly Ol' St. Nick

This year our visit to see Santa was really a wonderful and fun one. Kellen very quickly embraced the idea of going and seeing Santa, sitting on his lap, telling him what he wanted for Christmas and, most importantly in Kellen's eyes...getting a Candy Cane! As soon as he knew of the plan to see Santa he asked about it almost every day. This came as a shock to me, seeing as Kellen tends to be the shy, stand offish one in the family. I guess when you want a Candy Cane bad enough you will go sit on anyones lap to get one :)

Makenna on the other hand was a bit nervous. Not as much as last year. Last year I "strongly encouraged" Makenna to go sit with Santa for a picture. She did it on her own, but was not very happy at all to do so. This year, out of fear of forever scarring our child, I told her it was completely up to her whether or not she sat with Santa. She knew she could do whatever she was comfortable with....just stand back and look at him, go say hi to him and talk to him, give him a hug, sit with him, etc. She did want to make sure that he knew what she wanted for Christmas, so this year we wrote our very first "Letters to Santa". We told Makenna if she was too scared to give hers to him then Kellen would do it for her, and he was very excited about this proposition

On my birthday we decided to take the kids to go see St. Nick.

Of course that morning, while we were getting ready to go get our picture with Santa, Kellen decided to hit Makenna in the face with a book leaving a number of very noticeable marks on her face by her eye. So, if Makenna looks a little beat up to you in this picture you are right...she is.

Kellen is going through a phase right now. That 2 year old phase of suddenly realizing he has the power and ability to pick on others versus being picked on. I think he half does it for attention, half just because he can. Makenna gave him a lot of abuse, so you can't totally blame him for wanting to try it out himself. It is sort of strange to hear and see Makenna being bullied now. I warned her that someday he would get bigger and stronger than her and that she would no longer have the upper hand. Once again, Mother is always right. The phase already seems to be passing a bit (thank goodness!), but now we forever have a ridiculous picture of Makenna with book marks on her face from her little brother.

Anyway, as we stood in line to see Santa both kids took their positions behind Mommy and Daddy's legs and were seeming a bit shy and overwhelmed by the moment. When our turn came I stepped up to tell the photographer what we wanted. And MUCH to my surprise I turned around to find Makenna already up in Santa's lap, happily telling him that she had been a good girl and was hoping for Hungry Hippo for Christmas. Kellen, who kept eying the Candy Canes, also climbed up on Santa's lap when it was his turn. When Santa asked him what he wanted he just shrugged his shoulders and said "I don't know" in a very cute little voice. He then happily took his candy cane and we actually managed to get a picture with Santa without any of the kids crying or looking like they wanted to cry. I am sure next year Conner will be older and wiser and will be screaming his head off. But for now I am enjoying a year with everyone on Santa's lap tear free.

That was, of course, until we added Brooke into the picture. Poor girl didn't care At All about telling Santa her Christmas wish, getting a candy cane or anything of the sort. She just wanted to be as far from the Jolly Guy as she could get.
I mean seriously, her face is about at red as Santa's jacket. Santa, you are a very patient man :)