Epic Santa Fail

Sunday was our day to go see Santa.  Never in my 3+ years of being a mom have we seen Santa, between Leah being really young and Audrey being a newborn we opted out of Santa the last few years.  But this year, I really wanted to bring some magic into the season with visiting Santa!

We walked up to the line in the mall and at the first glimpse of the man in red, Leah grabbed on to the back of my shirt and would not budge.  "I'm so scared Mommy!"  I tried talking her into it describing the magic of sitting on Santa's lap and telling him what you want for Christmas, but she wasn't having it.  So, we said, ok no picture with Santa this year.  There are some things that I force my child to do (like eating her veggies, taking a bath and going to bed), but seeing Santa is not one of them.

About 30 minutes later, my mom showed up with keys to the car ... did I mention Andrew locked the keys in the car?  yeah...

Well, Grandma mentioned something about Santa, and all of a sudden; Leah wanted to go sit on Santa's lap.  We went back to the line for Santa try #2.

The line wasn't long, but during the short wait Leah remembered why we walked away the first time, but decided that she would at least approach Santa ... as long as Daddy was holding her hand.

It's our turn.  We walk up to Santa, Leah's slowly checking him out, and not really sure what to do next; I put Audrey on Santa's lap.

It must have replayed in slow motion in her mind, the second she left the safety of Mommy's arms into the unknown lap of this fat guy in a red suit.  About a second after her bottom hit his leg, she freaked out.  First came the horrible face; you know the one, the crying with out any noise coming out, the warning face as for what is to come.  And then the screams came.

Santa is just holding Audrey and smiling, waiting for the picture to be taken.  I'm trying to pry my baby outta this crazy guy's arms, telling the laughing picture takers we will try again next year, and running away as fast as I can trying to calm down my screaming baby who is crying those huge alligator tears.

Grandma scrambles behind us with the stroller.  Then she says, 'you should have taken the picture!'  Crazy lady, I don't want a picture of my screaming baby and my scared toddler next to an apparently delirous (or deaf) Santa.  I do wish though that she had a camera to snap at that time.  It may have looked something like this:

While running through the food court sushing Audrey, the ever perceptive Leah looks up and says, "I think Santa scared Audrey."

2010 = Epic Santa Fail ... who knows what 2011 will bring!