A Early Visit to See Santa

Halloween ended and we skipped right to Christmas!  Not completely but we did take the kids to see Santa at Phipps Plaza today.  We made a reservation back in August and when we looked at our weekend schedules this was the only free one we had until mid-December.  So we took it and made an early visit to see Santa (I actually think we went this weekend as well last year since we took Carter alone right before Parker was born).

We talked up the trip to Carter for several days before hand.  After last year's screaming fit, we were prepared for the worst with him.  There was a little line so Carter drew a picture for Santa while he waited.

Then he went to check out some of the holiday windows.

Mean while Parker was passed between mom and dad and chatted it up with the family in line behind him.

Soon it was our turn for Santa.  And we had a crier on our hands...

It didn't dawn on us that Parker might be the crier.  Fortunately Carter was all smiles the whole time and with a little help from the photographer and a used Elmo doll with maracas, Parker's frown...

quickly turned upside down!

And we got a really good picture (the official one has a better vantage point).

We figured Parker had done his duty so we whisked him off while Carter gave Santa his letter drawing.  They had a good but quick discussion about what Carter wanted for Christmas (a fire truck) and what Carter knew Parker wanted (a truck... sensing a theme here...).

Then Santa gave Carter a quick hug.

And Carter gave him one back.

And we were off!  Carter was super excited because he got a candy cane.  And his new white shirt was now red ;)

A successful Santa outing!