Santa Claus is coming to town!

After skipping a visit with Santa last year, we decided that we definitely owed him a visit this year. Our first attempt at visiting Santa was met with a VERY long line, a little girl who kept saying "I don't wanna wait my turn," and a new obsession with escalators. Our 2nd attempt was much more successful with a strategic early arrival at the mall... there were only two families before us and we had an extremely excited little girl who was rearing to go.

In fact, Avery was so excited about seeing Santa that when he arrived she started trembling. For a moment we thought she was scared but we realized that she was actually shaking with happiness and excitement (she has a flair for the dramatic). She had to stand behind a red rope before it was her turn and she kept saying "Move the rope, Mommy... move the rope!" When it was her turn she walked right up to Santa and started chit-chatting. I asked Santa if he thought he would be able to make it to our house on Christmas Eve and he asked Avery if she'd been a good girl. Her response: "I'm wearing a pull-up!"

Ave jumped onto Santa's lap for a picture and told him she wanted a bike. They discussed if it should have two wheels, three wheels or four (though I was looking at photos, so I'm not really sure what they came up with there). She also mentioned she wanted pink boots and a book.

Here is our gal with Santa:

She was more than comfortable chatting it up with the white-bearded man. We were so proud of her! Santa was all compliments telling us we had a really sweetheart. AS IF we didn't know that already! :)

When Avery asked him about cookies, Santa said he liked "round" cookies (of course I had just made two dozen tree, star, candy cane and gingerbread man-shaped cookies) and agreed that the reindeer liked carrots. Then as an after-thought he added that they like oats too (c'mon, Santa... she remembers EVERYTHING. Now we gotta get oats, too?!)

All in all, I'd say we had a really great visit with Santa. Can't wait to see if he brings Avery everything her little heart desires! (Something tells me he just might.)