Our First Successful Trip to See Santa

This will be our fourth time attempting to visit Santa. Year 1, Jenna was terrified and screamed the entire time we were in line to see Santa. So we left, and I was really disappointed that we didn't get a "Santa picture" with her.

Year 2, Abby was here too and I was so excited to get a picture with my two little sweethearts and Santa. Abby was too little to object and Jenna was all for it. We stood in line for at least a half hour. It was almost our turn--we had one other family in front of us. Unfortunately, we had to leave because Jenna threw up all over that family. She had the beginning of a stomach bug and I was mortified. Some nice guy helped me clean up the puke as all the other mommies tried to stay as far away from us as possible. ( I don't blame them!)

Year 3, we were back to being afraid of Santa and settled for a wave to him from afar.

But this year, we did it! There was no line and we had a really great Santa. He sang Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer to the kids, played along when Jenna asked him where his sleigh and reindeer were, and made sure to tell them about the being naughty or nice deal. Which is great, because now I have leverage for a few weeks. Jenna's really afraid of getting coal:) (Not that we would ever give it to her, but it's nice to be able to say, "I'd like to see good behavior or Santa will know that you haven't been good lately . . . ")

It's nice to finally have a picture of the girls with Santa--and so wonderful that they smiled!