Christmas: Uncut
As a rookie father I rely on the wisdom of others to navigate the slippery slope of parenthood. That is what makes blogs so great – you can read about someone else’s experience and learn about how you would handle a similar situation.
But what about Christmas? As a first time parent I read many blogs that had great pictures of their kids with Santa. There were smiling photos and crying photos and everything in between. That being said, not one of you mentioned that the wait to see the fat guy in the red suit was longer than any line at Disneyland. This would have been useful information for this naive Daddy!
My first inkling that we were in trouble was when we called the mall on December 24th and asked if Santa was still there (’cause, you know, he might have already headed back to the North Pole). He was there, I was told, but if we weren’t in line by 3:00 p.m. we wouldn’t get to see him. Okaaaaaaaay. We were also told he was on lunch from noon to 1:00 p.m. (it seems to me the guy could stand to miss a lunch or two). Well, we got there a little after 12:00 and there was already a line of about 20 to 30 kids. Andrea got in line and I took the babies with their grandmother and greatgrandmother to go shopping for even more clothes. We had lunch and brought Andrea her lunch a little after 1:00 p.m. It’s a good thing Andrea waited in line because the line was about 5 times longer by the time we got there.
An hour and 10 minutes later, we finally got to see Santa. We sat them on his lap, took the picture, got a candy cane and it was done. Although Santa was concerned enough to ask how long we waited. When we told him about 2 hours, he replied with a very apologetic look, “I’m sorry.” We told him not to worry – it was worth it. And, you know what? It was.
16 Comments
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
That is a great picture! The babies look flat-out adorable.
Rookie, here, too, and we were lucky enough to bring ours to the Santa at my school, where we were first in line and didn’t have to contend with 4,000,000 other shoppers. It made for an early morning, but not only were the babies smiling, mommy was off in the corner smiling, too, because it took us all of 8 minutes to get in line, sit on lap, and return to car seats to go home. I’ve heard from my more experienced mom friends that earlier is better for the mall Santas–earlier in the season and earlier in the day.
Comment by amy — December 27, 2005 @ 12:40 pm
1 that is a wonderful Santa picture.
2. My stepbrother and his wife just had a set of their own boy/girl twins on Dec 2, and I can’t wait to see them start reaching all of the milestones that your babies have given me a preview of.
Comment by hayfever — December 27, 2005 @ 2:41 pm
We lucked out and happened to walk by a bored no one’s here to see me Santa on the way to get 9mo and 3 yr pics done of the kids. I didn’t care that they were in jammies till we got to the studio. They sat on Santa’s lap in their lovely jammies and proceeded to crack not one single smile. In fact, they looked stoned. I proudly carry it in my purse to show anyone who will have a lookie. Sometimes a line ain’t all that bad.
Beautiful children!! Congrats on surviving you’re first Christmas. Wait unitl they really get into the wrapping! Fun times are ahead my friend!
Comment by Trishfreak — December 27, 2005 @ 6:54 pm
GREAT PIC! Such big, wonderful smiles.(very nice looking Santa too-real beard?) Maybe it IS better that I live in a town with no shopping malls. There was a “one day only” Santa at one store on the 3rd, with no waiting time.
Comment by cindy of Crusades — December 27, 2005 @ 7:36 pm
That is a beautiful santa picture! Both children smiling at the same time AND actually in the right direction. How did you manage that? Our 2 didn’t co-operate as well as your two, ours are not twins though – one is 2 (terrible 2′s – its all true) and our little one is 6 months. Our 2 year old had a major strop just before we got the photo – hence we never even got her out her buggy, just rolled her in beside Santa! LOL Kids here are not allowed to sit on Santa’s knee anymore – instead they sit on a little plastic red chair in front on santa…its a shame really. Your Santa looks really jolly too…we had serious santa. I love you pic! Your children are beautiful and have such beautiful smiles.
Comment by Ivoryfrog — December 27, 2005 @ 11:00 pm
That’s a gorgeous photo and one of the least scary Santa’s I’ve seen in ages. Well done!
Comment by Sassy — December 28, 2005 @ 1:21 am
Didn’t warn you of the line b/c we didn’t have one! We too hit the bored no one’s here to see me Santa – hence the spur of the moment photo. You really are good parents! Not sure I would have stuck it out in a line!!!
GREAT photo! Both of them smiling! Well done. What kind of noises and funny faces and jumping around did you two have to do to achieve that?
Comment by Dana — December 28, 2005 @ 4:53 am
Oh, that was so worth it. Unfortunately, we didn’t get our act together in time to visit Santa this year. Maybe next year, when Rancito dresses up like him, and we take the pictures in the comfort of our own home.
Comment by ieatcrayonz — December 28, 2005 @ 6:34 am
oh my gosh! they are so precious!!
Comment by Becky — December 28, 2005 @ 8:19 am
GREAT photo!
Comment by MIM — December 28, 2005 @ 10:52 am
Oh, and you two are DEDICATED. There is no way in . . . heck . . . we would have stood in line that long. It was bad enough we had to wait 20 minutes!
Comment by MIM — December 28, 2005 @ 10:53 am
The time flew by, I loved every minute.
Comment by Grandmother — December 28, 2005 @ 3:08 pm
I usually have all 3 kids to myself so never wait in line for santa. However, the santa’s we see aren’t as good as yours either & that’s a picture you’ll look at many many times in the years to come, so good for you:-)
Comment by Mrs Aginoth — December 29, 2005 @ 7:07 am
Yay two smiling balls of happiness! (Well, three, if you count Santa.)
Comment by Kari — December 30, 2005 @ 6:46 pm
That is a FANTASTIC Santa picture! My kids have always cried – at least one of them – whenever they’ve seen Santa.
Comment by Laura — December 30, 2005 @ 10:40 pm
That picture is so cute. We had to wait in line for an hour. And mine are older and very wiggly. I love the picture I got, I had one screaming and one smiling. Oh yeah, before I forget, the lines at Disneyland are longer. We went on Wednesday and had to wait two hours to do almost everything.
Comment by Melissa — December 30, 2005 @ 10:41 pm