Here Comes Santa Clause

The following weekend after we got out Christmas Tree, we headed to the next stop on our list this holiday season-which was to see Santa Clause himself, at the much dreaded mall. Last year Elem and I went with Cecilia, Aunt Ali, and Grammy, but this year daddy decided to bite the bullet and hit up the mall. (He is so not a mall person-so this was a big deal for daddy! Thank you Seth!) Once we got there we hurried to get in line, which I thought would go pretty fast, but slowly turned into about an hour wait-maybe a little more. I had high hopes for the line though and for the demeanor Elem would maintain throughout the lengthly wait.
And overall, with the help of a few Chicken nuggets, courtesy of Chick-Fil-A:

Some close up time checkin out Old Saint nick with Daddy:

And playing "name that body part" with mommy:

He way exceeded my expectations in regards of the type of mood I assumed and seemed to remain very happy throughout the entire wait! Patience is a virtue little man. Good job!

However, once we became "next in line", the excitement of Santa Clause seemed to settle down, and the happy face turned into a shy one. He did walk up to Santa on his own, but as soon as I put him on Santa's lap, the tears they came a pourin'. :( So the majority of the pics we got looked something like this:

This was the best one they were able to get, and since he was at least not screaming in this one, we had to get it. I think you always have to get at least one pic on Santa's lap! I mean come on, these are the ones you pull out for the future girlfriends one day. So here it is. The 2008 Santa pic:

And just to show you how much Elem has grown, here is a flash back to last year's pic.

Its amazing how much he has grown and how I had no idea this is where we would be this time this year! The trip to see Santa was so much fun, and cant wait till next year! It is truly amazing the blessings God has in store for us, and how they are more wonderful than you could ever imagine!