I have planned all along to take them to see Santa, but sometimes things are difficult to do logistically. That seemed to be the case with finding a Santa, and going to see Santa. On Sunday, I enthusiastically asked Sophie if she wanted to meet Santa and she said she did. I did some things around the house and rethought taking them to see Santa for a few reasons- it was bitter cold out, it was getting late and Liam was napping. I made up mind that it really would be OK to not take them to Santa. Unfortunately, the next time I saw Sophie, she was talking about meeting Santa. That sealed the deal- we had to go.
So, it was about 3:45pm, and I had to wake Liam up from the short nap he had. He wasn't happy about this at all. Papa was feeling very ill and decided he was going to stay home and rest. I dressed the kids warmly, all the while Liam was whining. It was 8 degrees fahrenheit...bitter cold! We rushed the kids to the car, and it takes about 5 minutes to get all three kids buckled in. After much maneuvering, we were ready to go and quite cold.
The mall was packed, which was completely expected, but I had hoped that the cold might work in our favor on this front. Nope. I dropped the kids and Rachel at the door so they didn't have to walk in the cold and found a distant parking space. I froze! And Liam freaked out because I wasn't with him.
In the mall, both kids just stared at everything-this was their first trip to a mall or store other than a grocery store. When we approached the elevator to go down to Santa Claus, Liam had a meltdown. I wasn't totally sure it was the elevator, so we walked some more and tried another elevator. No go...so Rachel and Dominic took the elevator and I tried to take the kids on the escalator. He wasn't having that, or the stairs for that matter. So, I carried him down the 20 or so stairs and held Sophie's hand. I tried to be enthusiastic and calm with him about visiting Santa, and we got in line.
The Santa area was Polar Express themed, which was familiar to Liam and Sophie. Liam would be calm for about 2 minutes then melt down. This repeated. I tried to find out if he wanted to go home, and he said he didn't. In a last ditch effort, Rachel stayed in line with Dominic and we went to the play area. He was much happier here. Unfortunately, he pushed some kids and was being a bit aggressive, so our visit to the play area lasted about 50-60 minutes.
By the time we got back to Rachel, we were pretty close to the front of the line. Dominic, of course, was very cranky by this time. It was a little after 6pm when our kids got their pics with Santa, and then we had to wait forever to get the prints, pay etc. We got out of the mall around 7pm, and it was 2 degrees! Oh my!
Needless to say, it took the kids forever to fall asleep. They didn't fight getting into bed, but they had A LOT to process in their little heads so they had a very time getting to sleep.
Next year, I am going to plan this whole Santa thing a lot better- no malls!!!! Enjoy the photo!
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