Complications

As Santa pictures go, a pretty good one, no? You'd like to see a smile, but with kids you take what you can get. In fact it might almost be considered perfect, if not for the obvious exclusion in our case.

The story: We procrastinated our Santa visit this year. It was going to happen last weekend, until Jenn got sick and we didn't get organized enough and in time on Sunday to make it happen. This left M-Th of this week to get it done. I got a call from Jenn right before quitting time on Tuesday, and the plan was set. Round up the girls from daycare, meet at home, quick change of clothes, and off to the mall we fly. Knocking on wood panel the whole way, hoping it wasn't too blown out.

"Quick clothes changes" never are quite as quick as you'd like these days, as the girls would either prefer to run around naked, or "do it themselves": their dressing skills documented by Jenn in the previous post, of course. But we still managed to get out the door in respectable time, and headed to Town East. We actually got a parking spot without having to resort to any demolition derby tactics, entered cautiously optimistic, and were buoyed even further when the Santa line did not stretch longer than 3 stores. "We might actually pull this off", my wife and I communicated to each other telepathically.

And then, The Wait. In science you sometimes hear talk of "deep time", the concept of time on a geological/universal scale, millions and even billions of years. As humans with ~100 year lifespans, it takes concerted effort to imagine the vast, ocean-like size of the time periods required to build mountains and stars. One trick that helps in this effort, is to stand in a Santa line with two 2-year old girls at 6:30pm after a full day of daycare. To their credit, they did pretty well for about 3/4 of The Wait, even if they were not too fond of the stroller. And then, right as we got to within view of Santa, in goes the thumb into Kayla's mouth, and down went the head on my shoulder.

On some level I knew what was coming right then, but we were scant moments away, I figured we could still pull it off. But as we arrived at the "You'll be next" entryway, and Kayla was asked if she was ready to sit on Santa's lap, the answer was a definite "No". Even Mommy could not convince her, trying to simply stand her by Santa, or to give her one of the stuffed bears sitting in Santa's makeshift workshop. Tears were flowing, arms outstretched to whatever parent was closest.

Megan, meanwhile, sat right down on Santa's lap like we had given her to Grandpa.

Disappointing, but in retrospect perhaps not that surprising. Bedtime is traditionally between 7 and 7:30, and we had pushed the limits of their endurance not only mentally, but physically by cobbling together a quick "supper" of crackers and breakfast bars. At least it's been good for a blog post.

Off to Canton here in a couple hours, for Christmas with Mom and Dad, and Linda/Shane/Jalen/Jordan, assuming the weather out there is cooperating. Then back tonight for Eve with Ruth, and Day tomorrow with the additions of Karen/Carl/Nathan. Spoiler Alert: I hear tell Santa is going to bring us a toy piano and guitar, some new puzzles, and new crayons/coloring books.