I think Pinky still has a few years of getting used to Santa! When she first met him at the Del Mar Holiday of Lights she made it clear she was uncomfortable with his presence, so I held her in the photos. My plan was to expose her a few times to him before she got her official Santa pictures taken, but that didn’t quite work out! Today we went to Seaport Village, it was great because there were no huge crowds, everyone was probably at the mall. Anyway, Pinky fell asleep on the way there, so before she woke up, we picked up our usual iced blended mocha at the Upstart Crow Bookstore & Coffee Shop, our regular routine when visiting Seaport. While we walked to the gazebo to check out Santa’s prices, Pinky awoke from her beauty sleep not knowing what would happen next.
We tried to introduce her to Jolly Old St. Nick, but she just started screaming. We figured it was because she had just waken up. We didn’t take photos right away, instead we walked around and let Pinky wake up and get comfortable with her surroundings. We hung out at The Hyatt where we took photos in front of one of the beautifully decorated trees and later found a box full of Sesame Street toys. Finally, we headed back to Santa’s house…she must have figured it out because she wasn’t to happy when she saw us approaching the semi-decorated gazebo. Again, no line! The photographer and Santa were extremely patient with us as we tortured our little lady into the tradition of getting her photo taken with Santa. I felt bad, but I admit it was kind of funny. I hope I don’t sound like a horrible parent. She was being very over-dramatic, but I can’t blame her. This is all very new to her – big guy, with a lot of facial hair in a big red suit…come on! Anyway, we decided to go ahead and take the photos even though she was crying her brains out. After all, this is what happened and now we have a very fun (and future embarrassing) Kodak Memory of it!
Merry Christmas! And, cheers to all the parents who took their kids to see Santa, regardless of whether they wanted to see him or not! I’m guessing next year will be different! Enjoy!
So tell me…would you still make you kids take photos with Santa even if they didn’t want to? I usually let her decide, but I kind of had to go with this one for the sake of the holidays. Hopefully she’ll get over it and she won’t e traumatized by the experience. I’m sure we’ll all look back on this and laugh. Daddy and I already did. Not because we’re cruel, but because it’s cute! Anyway, we’d love to hear some feedback as well as any of your war stories.
Happy Holidays!