Santa Clause

Terri and I thought it would be fun to take our kids to the mall on Saturday. They haven't had a chance to see Santa yet and we thought they would like to go sit on his lap and get a candy cane. I should have taken the first clue when we were about a mile away from home and Bennett puked all over himself and the car seat. I tried to stop at Target to clean him up and just buy him some new pants. But it was beyond saving. We headed back home and cleaned up.

There we are at the mall with 7 - I repeat 7 kids and 2 moms. The kids were pretty great the whole time. We got some really awesome looks, though. It seems like no one out here has more than one or two kids so seeing 7 all together out in public looks like some kind of day care or babysitting service.

We visited some kid stores, got some lunch. Terri was nice enough to buy them a stuffed animal (that's really what saved the day). It was time to go see Santa. We get there and the line is at least an hour. Some of the kids are excited, some of the kids don't want to wait. I took Braden aside and brought him closer to Santa.

Me: "Look, do you see Santa? He's waving at you"
Braden: "Yea"
Me: "Do you want to go sit on his lap?"
Braden: Looks very confused. "No...I don't want to sit on that man's lap"

I guess we haven't done a good job on explaining the "rules" of Santa to him. And sitting on some weird old man's lap is not his idea of a good time. I never thought about it but I guess the whole idea is a little creepy.

Here's what we came up with...all the kids (except Bennett with Santa in the very distant background.)

Here's Bennett with his favorite baby - Lucy. She looks like a little doll.
More of Bennett "loving" baby Lucy.