Amelia & Santa

We didn't take Amelia to see Santa her 1st Christmas because she was 3 months old and, since she was born pre-term, we weren't really supposed to take her out around a lot of people because of risk of disease.

We didn't take Amelia to see Santa last year because she didn't want to get anywhere near him when we were at the mall. Sure, we could have forced her and had one of those awesome "child-screaming-on-Santa's-lap" pictures, but we figured we had PLENTY of time to torture our baby.

We really weren't sure it was going to happen this year. Amelia definitely knows what Christmas is [presents, fa-la-la-la-la, baby Jesus...], she'll tell you what she wants for Christmas, but she wants NOTHING to do with that old guy named Santa. Alex & I agreed that we wouldn't push it. Honestly, if she's not into seeing Santa, what's the big deal? Every time we went to the mall we'd swing by Santa-land and talk to him, check him out. Santa was always nice. Amelia never cried, she just didn't want to get too close. Then she started talking about getting her picture with Santa...without being provoked. We'd just say, "Ok. We can do that some day."

Last Friday, we were going shopping at the mall with my mom. I didn't bring up Santa, but purposely chose a holiday-ish outfit, just in case. Once again, Amelia told my dad that she was going to have her picture with Santa. Ok.

We did some shopping and then made our way down to where Santa was. We stood back, checking it out, and then the lady asked if we wanted our picture with Santa. There was no on in line so I thought it was now or never! Boy, Amelia did NOT want to get out of her stroller! She would not get close to Santa at all! She didn't cry, but she just wanted to get far away from him. Sitting on Santa's lap was NOT going to happen. The really awesome Santa suggested that I crouch down next to him and put Amelia on my knee so that we could get a picture. So that's what we did. And the picture isn't really all that bad. She managed to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas, and that she loved him. All in all, not a bad time.