Hello Santa

 I'd been looking forward to taking Olive to meet Santa for weeks.  We planned to do it after work one evening so that our whole family could go and we grabbed dinner at the mall.  I had no idea what to expect and just hoped that Olive wouldn't be too traumatized.  She has just started being clingy with me and doesn't want me out of her sight.

 We waited in line for about 20 minutes and met several cute families.  The kids were all wearing cute outfits and it was fun to be participating in this rite of passage.  Olive got lots of compliments on her outfit and her sparkly headband.  We chatted with other kids and Olive was in heaven starring at everything.  I could not get her to look at me no matter how many good faces/noises I made.  She loved the lights, garlands, trees, smiling at people and people watching in general.  I guess I taught her well... We even met a sweet family who had a son about Olive's age.  He had tons of hair, bright blue eyes and darling parents.  His mom is a photographer so it was nice to make a new friend in line.

I had talked through the whole Santa meeting process with her earlier in the day but you just never know how a 6 month old will react.  It was our turn and Santa came to greet us.  He was such a handsome Santa decked out in his furry outfit and shiny boots.  He was the real deal.  I'd been watching the older kids come to talk to him and they were in heaven.  He was so kind and caring to each one of them.  I'm thinking that the real Santa might just might be hanging out in Little Rock this year.

We walked over to his large chair and he sat down.  He handed me some jingle bells and gave me some tips for getting Olive to look at the camera and not get distracted by everything going on at the mall.  I handed her to him and she looked all around, she smiled, she looked at the camera and got snuggled by Santa.  At the very end she made a pouty lip but I quickly snatched her up and she was fine.  Kevin took her and I went to pick out a picture.  I had to look through a few pictures and decide on one in about 10 seconds.  They were all cute but I wasn't about to drop tons of money on the super Christmas photo package.  Kevin said to select whichever one I wanted so I picked the one where Santa was snuggling her closest.

 Merry Christmas sweet baby girl!!