139 Our Visit with Santa ...

was totally ruined. Connor did not scream at all! I have such wonderful pictures of Katie with her face turning redder than Santa's suit, but could Connor oblige me?? NO! I remember at the time being upset that Katie's Santa pictures had her crying (and by crying I mean - bawling hysterically), but now those are my very favorites. Maybe if Connor had to do it on his own he would have broke down, but he had his Katie right beside him the whole time. What a lucky boy to have a wonderful sister like that! He did think about crying when I handed him over to Santa and stepped back, but he calmed down pretty quickly. Poor Katie had a "sleepy mouth" as her dentist calls it. She had the last of her crowns put in today, and I was hoping her mouth would have thawed out (Chip hates that I say thawed, but it seems frozen to me so it fits) by the time we got to Santa. We gave it a little over three hours, but we did not want to push it too much longer in the mall. When we left a little after 4 o'clock it was just starting to gear up. We did hit Toys'R'Us before we went to the mall and it was pretty busy, but they had all the cash registers open so checkout was pretty easy.

Back to the Santa visit. The kiddos did not want to look at the camera at the same time. Connor definitely was not thinking about smiling. Katie, she tried so hard to smile, but her little mouth was numb. I did my best. I was standing by the camera, literally jumping up and down like an idiot. They were both looking, kinda smiling ... she was about to snap the picture ... and then Chip spoke! Connor's head whipped to the side right as the camera clicked. Chip was lamenting his lack of camera to capture my idiocy. So, back to jumping I went, but they were totally on to me by then. We ended up going with the very first picture they shot for our package. It was the least bad of the bunch. I think I might have caught a few that were better, but you can't take your own pics unless you buy theirs.

Theirs:

Mine:

After the pictures were done, Chip collected Connor so that Katie could tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas. As we were walking away from Santa, Chip asked her what she told Santa. Four make-ups and a Nintendo DS. That girl can't get enough make-up.
Connor enjoyed his candycane, as evidenced by the candy drips on his vest.Katie picked out her special ornament for this year. Amazingly, not the Hannah Montana ornament either! She chose the Barbie "A Christmas Carol" ornament. She has been asking for that movie for Christmas since we learned it was coming out, so it is a very fitting ornament for this year. Yes, we did try to buy the movie for her early, but she insisted that she wanted to get it on Christmas.

And, what ends a day better than popcorn and a movie? Katie picked out "Barbie in The Nutcracker" for our family movie. I popped and buttered the corn. Connor stole the corn! He popped the first piece in and chewed away, so I gave him his own little bowl. When he was done feeding himself, he decided to help feed Katie. Such a thoughtful little man.