Visit with Santa

So we took the boys to the mall 2 days before Christmas eve, thinking we'd get in and get out of the traditional visit with Santa at the mall in no time. We had gotten movie tickets from one of Jason's reporters, so we thought going to see a movie afterwards would be a great day to end the day...well, apparently everyone else had the same idea that day, as well! We went to stand in line and realized Santa had 'gone to lunch', so we thought we'd do the same and then come back and wait in line, as the line wasn't too ridiculous...YET.

So we eat lunch, come back and now the line is TWICE as long as before. We reluctantly stand in line and hope to see some light at the end of that tunnel...but there isn't so much as a flicker of light. We could see the line just wasn't going to move fast enough for us to make it to the movie, so we decided to call it quits so we'd make it to the movie on time, boo :(

But that's not the end of the story, folks! I was determined to keep that tradition of the cute little Santa pic going, so I woke everyone up the next morning and said to get ready, we were going BACK to the mall for a picture with Santa!! We thought we'd get there earlier and the line couldn't possibly be that long. WRONG, think again! The line was even LONGER! I stood there looking down at those people standing in line and couldn't believe people were willing to stand in a line like that, all for a picture with a dude dressed up in a Santa suit!

I wasn't about to do it, at least not at THIS mall...so we decided to go to a different mall. You can see I don't give up easily :) We got there and the line was long, but not near as long as the other mall we'd been to. So I told everyone to buck up and deal with it! We're not going anywhere without a visit with Santa!! This Santa looked more like the real deal than I've seen in a long time, and this years Santa picture was one of the cutest ones we've ever had, so the moral of the story is that you never give up on something you're going after, even if it is just a picture with Santa Claus...and good things come to those who wait :)

Jason got a few cute pics of the boys visiting with Santa...I'm so glad I stuck to my guns and forced my boys to visit with this cute old man ;)