I didn’t dress Ronan up for Halloween, and I really regret it already. All of the cute babies in cute costumes? I don’t have a picture of that! Ronan is going to be 10, and ask me where is the picture from his first Halloween, and all I’m going to have is this.
I think I’ll just tell him he hated Halloween so much, he wouldn’t let me put him in a costume.
Anyways, we decided to get Ronan’s picture taken with Santa. We expected the line to be hours long at the mall, so we got up early, got Ronan dressed in his Christmas outfit, and headed in anyways. We were ready for the long haul. Brock parked the car and Ronan and I went in to get in line with the thronging hordes of parents and children, all eagerly awaiting their chance to sit on Santa’s lap.
We went down the escalator, around the outside of the “Snowglobe Village” and… there was no one there. I double checked the schedule – yup, they open in 15 minutes. Seriously? We’re the only people here? The first ones in line?
Awesome.
Brock went and got us each a coffee from Starbucks (Grande Decaf caramel latte for me) and we waited for them to open. In that time, NO ONE else showed up. I guess we picked the right day to go? Hey, I’m not complaining!
Ronan wasn’t really into it.
When they opened up the line, we walked around, set our coffees down, and asked Ronan very politely to try to make it a good day for Santa. Since he was the very first, he was going to set the day up for the old man in Red. I don’t really know that he was listening. Brock, instead of just handing Ronan to Santa without letting him see who was holding him, decided to try to introduce them. Santa said, “Just turn him around and put him on my lap or he’s going to scream.” Evidently, we are Santa-Baby Noobs.
Ronan sat for all of 3 seconds before he started screaming. Arching his back, throwing his elbows out, and yelling at the top of his lungs, he just wanted OUT of there! I ran over and sat beside him for a minute, and had Ronan calm down… and then asked “Can we try one more time?” Santa didn’t look very hopeful. Actually, he was much less than jolly about it. He said, “I guess.”
In the end, Ronan tried to look around and see who was holding him, and Pro-Santa dodged his line of sight. We kept him from seeing who was holding him JUST long enough to snap this picture, and I’m TOTALLY happy with it!
Yay for Ronan’s first Christmas Picture!
