Where is that Santa?

As many of you may experience this time of year, sometimes the most simple of holiday traditions can sometimes get out of hand. We had one of those today...

Each year, we have had a picture of Avery taken with Santa. The first year - she didn't know what was going on. The second year - she screamed so hard that her feet were actually blurry in the picture from her kicking to get away from him. This year? Well...

Let's just say, we had to go on a Santa chase.

Avery had been prepped on what to talk about, dressed in her best, and was telling everyone she saw, "I'm going to see SANTA!" Excitement abounded. The first place that we went to was by my good friend D.'s house, an hour from our home. They've had NO line in the past and a nice Santa to boot. However, when we happily trotted in today, with Avery telling each customer that we passed "I'm going to see Santa!", it turned out Santa was sick and not there today. What? I had even called to check times! Avery looked about to cry. "Where's Santa? He doesn't feel good? Oh No! I can't see him?" I felt so bad we got back in the car and called up D. She willingly hopped on the internet to look up another location for us. We ended up driving almost all the way home (an hour back) to another spot with Santa. This one had reindeer and everything! I thought, "This is great! She will totally forget about sick Santa!" Avery was ready and even more excited to get to see his reindeer as well! Even better! As we got there (it was a zoo), it turned out that there was an undisclosed ADMISSION fee just to get into the zoo, and then the charge for the pictures on top! Almost $45 for a picture with Santa?!? NO WAY! Avery could see Santa standing there beyond the fence... "Santa! Hi Santa! Oh No, where is he going?" I told her that we couldn't go to this one. She was completely crestfallen, and I was almost in tears myself. So we got back in the car again, and called my good friend again, she searched all of the greater eastside and couldn't find another one close by... this is what I get for waiting until the day before Christmas Eve. Avery was patiently waiting in the backseat, singing "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells. Ho-Ho-Ho!" As I got on the freeway to go home, I started to prep Avery that we might not get to see Santa today. When she looked out the window and realized that we were going in the direction of our house, she came unglued! "I can't go home!!! I didn't see Santa! Santa, where are you? SAN-TA!" I just couldn't do it.

I turned around and headed back into town. There was a mall about 15 minutes away that I knew had a Santa, but I had originally bypassed it because the wait was an hour long. So, our journey to see Santa had begun at 2:00 in the afternoon, and here it was 5:45 as we stood in line in the mall waiting to see Santa. Considering there was no nap, high emotions, and low amounts of snacks, we had a happy ending. It was a grueling hour long wait, but Avery was living on excitement. Although a little timid as she approached him, she happily sat on Santa's lap. All's well that ends well, right?

... Interestingly enough, in keeping with my current day, I just realized that our printer isn't networked/connected/driver-installed (whichever!) correctly, so I can't actually scan and post the wonderful photo that we worked so hard to get today! Unbelievable!! Wouldn't you know... So, I guess the one from last year will suffice for now.

So, after a good nights sleep and a moment of clarity, I realized that I could simply take a picture of Avery's current Santa picture and add to the post. Here it is: