Bad Santa

We ventured to the mall the other day, the self proclaimed 'place to be seen in the Palm Beaches' (barf) to visit Santa and do a little shopping. The morning started like any other, breakfast, coffee, and an half hour long battle to put clothes on Sam and tear him away from a million books that he desires to have read each morning before they spontaneously burst into flames before he has fully memorized each line of each page. Unlike most mornings we attempted to dress him in something other than a soft t-shirt by adding a super-fly vest (see below) figuring that since the vest had no sleeves (which he loathes) that he might not even notice it was on. Wrong. He proceeded to have a shizzy (this is somewhere between shit fit and tizzy) pulling and stretching the vest until it nearly looked as though it belonged to my pregnant belly and not his toddler tummy. Finally after 20 minutes of screaming he realized he would not win this or any fashion battle with his 'stylist' and was released from the crib for our meeting with Santa. Strong willed much? Must take after his mother in this department. :)

With much anticipation we waited while Santa took a break to 'feed the reindeer' or as Sam calls them 'moose' (he can't help his Northwest roots!). I came equipped with my own camera this year in the hopes of avoiding another crappy photo from the elves. As we approached the 'on deck' waiting area for our turn, we saw a father wrestling his screaming and thoroughly terrified daughter into the arms of a stranger with a Marlboro stained beard that reeked of booze we quickly changed our plan. Instead of forcing Sam to sit on Santa's lap and scarring him for life, we instead placed him on Dad's lap next to Santa. Good plan, but not quite good enough. With 2 seconds to react, bad mall lighting, a non responsive Santa and a quickly escaping toddler this is all I managed to get. Crap. I can't say that I won't try again. I don't want to, but seem to have found the real Santa today at a mall west of us, who I know to be real because he was sipping a Starbucks latte on his break. I mean, come on!

'anticipation'

the money shot. ahem. santa? sam? camera please!