The most wonderful time of the year

We went and saw Santa last Friday.  The photographer tried to convince us to buy pictures. 
HA! 
I'm not about to pay $27 for a picture of my son screaming.  I can get that for free. 

So, they allowed us to take ONE picture with our own camera, and no flash allowed.  The first picture I took was completely blurry (I hate not using flash), so I sneaked in a second one really fast.  Shhh-don't tell.  ;)

Here we were....waiting for Santa:

See how excited they BOTH are?

haha  The look on his face seems like it was a real giraffe he was petting.  :)

 All was well, until it was our turn....

 

Well, at least Ari loved him.  :)

 Lexi wouldn't stop moving her head, so I couldn't get a non-blurry shot of her face.  Oh well.   She kept looking back and forth from Shane and I to Santa, wondering why her parents would encourage her to sit on a strange man's lap in the middle of the mall.  Kaden refused to look up and I was just laughing the whole time.  The photographer didn't believe me, but I knew he would freak out.  Santa was SO great with him, though.  Last year's Santa was ornery and mean, so I was really happy with Santa this year.  He put his arm around Kaden and took a couple of minutes to really talk to him and let him see that Santa isn't scary.  Lexi never smiled, but she didn't mind him, either.  Ari was, of course, just fine.  We'll see about next year. ;)

Merry Christmas!