Santa!

Well, to be honest, I was dreading going to see Santa this year... for the last two years, we have gone to see the "real" Santa in Roanoke.  He was amazing- the story time, singing, taking time with each child to have a good (or as good as possible) picture.  I did not want to go stand in line at the mall to be rushed through a line.  I have flashes of "A Christmas Story" run through my mind thinking about it.

But, since we're not in Roanoke and I couldn't really see driving all the way just to see Santa, we went to MacArthur Center, where we heard the experience was really good.  So we headed out, not really knowing what to expect since Rachel was pretty terrified last year.  When we walked passed, Santa looked at Rachel and waved since he didn't have any kids with him right then.  She got really excited and decided she did want to talk to him.  The line didn't seem too long so we got in.  Then we heard someone say it was an hour and a half wait... geez, it was pushing lunch time and we hadn't eaten yet (which was a bigger issue for me than anyone else!).  We talked about coming back later in the week since we get off of work so early and the line probably wouldn't be as long.  But of course Rachel was excited by this point, so we couldn't tell her no!  I mean really, how horrible would that be to take a child out of line crying because we didn't want to stand in line...

Although it was an hour and a half, it didn't seem like that long.  And you know what, it was a really good experience.  There was an Ice Age set up right before we got to Santa, so the kids got to play a little and do some activities.  Gavin was fine, of course, and Rachel was a little unsure, but she ended up sitting on his lap!  Not a huge smile, but she was pleasant.  (And sometimes, that's what you aim for!)  She didn't say anything to him, but sure has talked about him since!

"Why are we just standing here?"

Standing!

At least Gavin got to eat while in line!

They had Ice Age playing... Rachel loves those movies!

There was a block of "ice" for the kids to touch

There was a giant snow globe for the kids to stand in... I was fine with Rachel standing in the white stuff, however, the mom of the girl behind us with black hair wearing a black velvet dress was not as excited!

The best picture of the day!