Screaming for Santa

This morning we headed up to Bellevue Square to walk around the mall (it was nice to walk around without any pressure to buy since we are done with shopping), visit Santa Claus, and have lunch out with John's parents (they just got in from Chicago yesterday). We started waiting in line for Santa, but one of the workers gave us a card with a later time (10:50 a.m.) to come back so we wouldn't have to stand in line with the kiddos. It was a nice setup. Anyway, we came back at that time and we thought that maybe Gabi had warmed up to the Santa idea but she instantly starting screaming and crying when we put her in his lap. Emilio started feeling the pressure to smile and so he put a big pout on his face, as we four and all of Santa's helpers jumped up and down like crazy people trying to get our kids to look happy. It was classic. At one point Gabi had a big snot worm hanging down her face and this young guy (Santa's helper) went up and wiped it with a kleenix, both a brave and very kind elf I should say. Once we put candy canes (they love sweets!) in their hands they both were a tiny bit happier, but a big chunk of change later (those pix are expensive) we most likely ended up with very mediocure pictures of our kids with the notorious Santa Claus. Oh, and Santa Claus mentioned how strong Gabi was too, I guess she was really using all of her strength to try and get out of Santa's lap. Oh well, a mixture of torture and fun I guess. We will get the pictures in a week (weird they didn't have digital in this day in age) and I'll try and scan them so you can all see). Sharon and I wanted to eat at the Cheesecake Factory afterwards, but the boys won out with Red Robin. We had a nice time together, but it is girls choice next time!





Peek a boo with an onion ring!