Thursday night we traveled to Bentleyville for a family field trip with AJ's kindergarten class. There we waited in line for a photo opp with the legendary big guy.
Interestingly, neither of the kids had fully thought through what to tell him they wanted for Christmas. However, they came with gifts for him. Each had colored a special picture that they wanted to hand deliver.
The big question in my mind as we waited in line for 20 minutes in single digit temperatures... well, besides the obvious question of "Why were we doing this?"... was whether Sydney would at last be brave enough to sit on Santa's lap. She'd been too scared to stand near the furry mascot characters we passed along the path. But she hadn't hid or cried like she's done in the past, so that's progress! And so we prepped her by reminding her that Santa was a good guy who loved children. We also got her thinking about what present to tell him she wanted.
By the time we reached him, Sydney was ready. Jeff set her down next to Santa and she immediately blurted, "Fairy princess. I want a fairy princess." Never mind that AJ hadn't even sat down. AJ was too busy presenting his masterpiece to Santa. But Sydney was ready to get down to business.
She didn't cozy up to him, but that's likely because she couldn't really move wearing as many layers of clothes she'd been dressed in. All in all, she did good. It wasn't until after Sydney got down that Santa reminded AJ he still hadn't told him what he'd like for Christmas. I missed that part. AJ told me later he asked for a teddy bear. Okay, if that's what he wants.
Jeff is hoping this fulfills our need to see Santa for the year. However, Santa is going to be at AJ's school this Saturday as part of a Boy Scout pancake breakfast fundraiser, so I'm thinking we might be seeing ol' St. Nick again tomorrow.
A Teddy Bear for AJ? I don't doubt at all that that's what he asked for. That wasn't something he just came up with out of the blue. Be aware that last weekend he told me that's what he wanted, so he's been thinking about it. When I asked him why, he pulled his arms in up to his chest like a hug and said something to the effect that then he could cuddle with it. (I even looked at the old NW Bank bear of yours that Dudley has and decided AJ probably wanted some thing that hadn't been played with by a dog.) I was going to mention it to you to see if it was going to be a Santa gift or what - AJ was so definite about it that I figured you already knew about it. I guess Santa is going to have to be the hero. :>)
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