Visits with Santa

Today was a very special day for Abby...it was picture day with Santa! We did do a few days of prep in order to get Abby comfortable with the man in the read suit--I recorded every possible cartoon I could find with Santa for us to watch before naps, we read all of our Christmas book time and time again, we talked about Santa as often as possible and most importantly we had a visit from our favorite Santa as a dry run.

The visit from Santa started with jingling bells at the front door. Abby and I were up stairs folding laundry and she just froze. It was all I could do not to crack up laughing. I scooped her up and headed downstairs. Santa came in the front door as we were half way down the stairs and Abby let out a big old "Hhhhiiiii" with an equally large wave. Three steps later her excitement plummeted and apprehension set in. The closer we got the more scared Abby became. I greeted Santa with excitement, hoping Abby would relax. Nope, not so happy about this guy in the big red suit. I start to pass Abby to Santa an then came the dear in the headlights look and tears were on their way. Hummmm, maybe Santa is not going to be a good thing this year.

Long story short, Santa came in, stayed a while and Abby slowly warmed up to him. By the end of Santa's visit Abby was sitting on Santa's lap, reading him books, playing peek-a-boo and chase and then blowing him kisses bye-bye. As Santa was leaving Abby told him "Bye, bye, bye, bye" as loud as she could as she waved and waved. Then for the next two day any time she saw Santa on tv she would get her surprised face then wave and shout "Hi" or when you ask her "what does Santa say" she would tell you "O, o, o". In the end I figured our trial run was a success, but who knew what two days later would bring.

Fast forward to today and the Genesee Valley Mall for our annual visit. We met up with Gramps, Grandma D and Aunt Wendy and once Abby lost her sleepiness, we got her dressed and headed to the center of the mall. She was so excited to walk through the mall holding Aunt Wendy's had, I think that if that was all we did she would have been a happy camper. Then we came to Santa's special space...Abby was intrigued by the "deer", lights, flowers and other little people. She was even more excited to see Santa! She pointed and talked and "O, o, o"ed and tried to pull away in order to get to him. So we got in line and hoped that her excitement held.

And it did! She kept signing book and pointing towards Santa while she tried to pull away some more. Then it was our turn...I picked her up and put her on Santa's lap then stepped away (while waiting for the tears to come). Tears were not in our future this time! The elf got 4 good snaps and this is what we wound up with:



So Santa 2010 was a HUGE success!!!! Once we left the picture area Abby kept on wanting to go back for more time with Santa and blowing him kisses! It was one of the cutest I have ever seen!!! What a special day!!