Sittin' with Santa

Saturday, December 8 was a day full of the holiday spirit. In the early afternoon, we visited the boys' daycare to visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus. Some of you may recall the intense melt down O went through 2 years ago sitting on Santa's lap. This year was different. While he was undoubtedly incredibly excited in the days prior to Saturday, he was also a bit anxious. Karen and I have learned that O is remarkably reasonable and takes instruction and listens to rational explanations in a way we feel is probably a bit unusual for one so young. So, we did a lot of talking and explaining before Saturday arrived. We let him know what was going to happen, what sort of questions the jolly ol' elf may pose, what was expected of the children that came to see him, etc, etc. In fact, since O-Fred has a very vivid imagination and loves it when we all pretend to be things we are not (lions, super heroes, super villains, wolves, NFL football team players, Santa's reindeer, etc, etc) I had actually pretended to be Santa a few times and sat the boy on my knee. Considering that the first time we did a mock run the boy completely froze up and couldn't remember what he wanted for Christmas (hilariously reminiscent of Christmas Story), I think it was a highly effective training exercise.

When the big moment came, the boy was a little hesitant and his voice was a little soft, but even so he confidently answered all questions and even managed to smile and breathe a sigh of relief when he realized he had accomplished his mission. Then, we threw Logi in the mix and the little ham cracked everyone up with his antics and relaxed his big bro even more.

After Santa we went and got our Christmas tree (necessarily small so we could put it up on a table to keep away from the Logan Monster) so it was a festive day all around.

Here are a few of the pics of the boys with Santa for your enjoyment: