Santa Brunch

We went to our annual Santa brunch last weekend and had a wonderful time. We looked forward to it all month long and it's the first year where Olive is old enough to remember what we did last year.  We were talking about where Santa lives and I told her the North Pole.  She corrected me and said that Santa lives at the golf course :)

She loved the reindeer last year and loved them even more this year.  They were friendlier and busier next to Santa so it was really neat to watch them.  She kept smiling and sneaking up to their pen to say hello. 

Then it was time to go and see Santa...

Awww sweet family of four visiting with jolly Old St. Nic....

The real story is...

This was our second attempt at a picture with Santa because Olive rolled up into a ball and refused to show her face for the first one.  We didn't get any good pictures the first round so we ate our brunch and then got back in line to see Santa again.

Fletcher has no shoes on because he lost one by the buffet and the photographer commented on him only having one shoe on when we went to snap the picture.  I took off the single shoe and pretended like I had some idea of where the missing shoe was.

Olive refused to sit on Santa's lap, talk to Santa or look at Santa after talking non-stop about seeing Santa for days.  She didn't cry, but was adamant about not wanting to talk to him.  She said she'd write him a letter and mail it to him instead.

Kevin and I had no intention of being in the picture with Santa this year.  We imagined we'd set both kids on his lap and step out of the picture.  Then we'd smile at them, they'd smile back at us and we'd snap a couple of perfect pictures.  The kids had other plans.

I have a bib hanging out of my back pocket because we don't go anywhere without one for the baby.  So much for me trying to hide it.

Fletcher walked away with a handful of white Santa beard.

And Olive cried as we were driving home because she never got to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas.  Forget those two times she was six inches from him just a little earlier.   So we wrote him a letter with her wish list.

The parents are smiling while Fletcher has a death grip on my arms and Kevin is holding on to Olive for dear life before she bolts away.

Both parents were sweating and it was totally worth the crazy moments to get this picture :)

So the next time you see a sweet family picture with Santa, just remember that there's probably some wild stories that go along with it :)  I remind myself often that the effort is worth it and that they crazy moments are easily forgotten in place of the happy memories.

We ate a delicious brunch and my favorite part was easily the bacon and three tiered cinnamon roll cake with berry frosting.  It was dreamy.  Olive was eager to head to the kid's table to decorate cookies.  It was a blast, but she said all of her cookies tasted "dis-cusk-ing".  Turns out she only loves white frosting. 

Olive was all smiles the rest of the day talking all about how she got to see Santa that morning.
Kids are crazy {wonderful}!

2015 Santa Brunch

What did your kids think of Santa this year??