Santa's Lap

 Friday was our library's annual Christmas Tree Lighting, and of course Santa was there to do the honors and then ask all the little munchkins what they wanted.  Bobo was sitting on him so nicely with his hands folded so sweet, and ventured to ask for Thomas trains and a Mickey Mouse toy.  He was so well-behaved and looked adorable, so cute that a lady from the newspaper had to write down his name because she was sure the picture she took of him 'was a keeper'.  I'll be checking tomorrow to see if he's in there of course!

Official Mall Santa Picture

Here it is, the 'official' Santa shot. I was too lazy to take it out of the frame, so I just took a picture of it on the mantle. I did fix it up a little bit! If I get more ambitious later I'll actually scan it and make it glowy or something.

Merry Christmas!

Santa Comes to the Mall

During my take-home final last Tuesday, Mom took Arin out for a fun night at the mall, so I would have some time to complete my test in peace. I'm jealous thought, because he had such a fun night and I wish I had gotten to go! They met up with Carl and JJ, and first went to see SANTA. Arin loves Santa, even if this one is a bit creepy looking. Carl was smart and brought his camera, so he got these shots while they were taking the official ones.


It turns out that the night they went was DOG AND CAT night to get your pet's pictures with Santa! So my Mom, who is allergic to furry critters, had to stand in a looooong line with them and a toddler. Fun!


Apparently Arin would NOT smile, no matter what they did, and they tried everything! They were wiggling stuff in front of him, telling jokes, and even gave him a candy cane!



The one thing that did get his happy attention was Santa's fuzzy sleeve. Apparently he loved it, and sat there and pet it for a few moments! How precious is that? Here is him petting it, with the petting part cut off... oops. But in the 'formal' picture Mom bought it has his hand resting on the fuzzy sleeve part, so that's a cute inside story to tell when he grows up.


When they came home, Mom told me that after spending all that time there that they hadn't got one picture of him smiling (which they didn't), so she refused to buy one! I was like, what, you can't do that! But it turns out she was waiting to surprise me, and on our 'early Christmas' before Julie left for England, she gave me the framed picture that she bought, and gave mini ones to Julie and Dad.


After all this fun with Santa, Arin and JJ went on to ride the special Christmas Train, then they had a yummy dinner at the Food Court, followed by *ice cream cones* and some fun holiday walking around the mall. I'm jealous! But not really jealous enough to brave all the crowds with a stroller until after Christmas.

Library Tree Lighting, Part 2

Here's the second part of the Tree Lighting... starting with once we FINALLY got inside. It was cold out, and Arin was heavy! Thank goodness we convinced my Dad to come, he took over Bobo-lugging duty.


Julie showed up and her and Mom snuck in to the Santa room... without waiting in line.

And here is THE Santa picture... not that great because Julie took it, and just one! The only other one shows ... well let's just say I don't think Santa was wearing any undergarments and it is very apparent in the other shot. So here is the shot of Bobo not looking with red eye and none of the pretty background... but at least Santa's not flashing us!


After the kids get their turn on Santa's lap, they have little candy canes and bags of 'reindeer food' which is oatmeal mixed with glitter that you're supposed to throw out on your lawn. Yeah, sounds like a great idea... we just opted for the candy canes.



And on the way out we had to stop at the pretty tree, all lit up! And a mini Santa was running around too.


Merry Christmas!

Christmas Picture

Well, the only Santa Arin's seen was last year and this year at the Library. There are a lot more up on facebook. It was a fun night, involving a real firetruck that Arin got to get up and play in, and the biggest Christmas tree ever lit up all pretty! Lots of fun for the little guy (and me, hee hee!)

Nothing fancy, but here he is:



The past few days when I've had spare moments they have been spent cleaning up baby barf or barfing myself. Oh, and we lost power for a day in that horrible ice storm. Our lines our still ripped off our house and in the driveway. Yey for safety, thanks National Grid for fixing it so promptly! Let me tell you, having to yak over and over again in a 20 degree bathroom is less than fun, in case you were wondering.