On Wednesday, Peyton, Josh, and I loaded up the truck and headed out to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa. We had been talking to Peyton for a few days about seeing Santa and how she could sit on his lap, tell him what she wants for Christmas, etc. She seemed pretty stoked about it.
On the ride from school to pick up Josh I asked Peyton what she was going to tell Santa she wanted.. "presents" she told me... and then added "Mommy & Daddy". I'm not sure if she meant presents for Mommy & Daddy OR a new Mommy & Daddy as her present?! I'm going to opt for version 1, but I still haven't officially decided if I should be offended or not.
Anyway, we get home and Josh is working on putting up more Christmas lights (no, his hands haven't fallen off yet...). Peyton was very excited to see that he had taken the geese out of the box and was pounding the stakes into the ground so that they don't fly away. She decided to then roll in the grass.. I had just finished telling her that we were going to go inside, change shirts, comb out her hair and then go... so much for that idea. So rolling in the grass and falling sounded like a lot more fun. Mind you, by Wednesday it had been raining here in Arizona for like 3 straight days (maybe 2... I lose count easily)... so Peyton has not been allowed to play outside at school... AT ALL. She is a wild child... more so than usual... for reals... she couldn't stop running. At this point I started to worry if seeing Santa was maybe not such a good idea, but alas, I rounded her up, got her changed, combed her hair, and threw her in the truck.
We got to Bass Pro Shop a little after 5:30 - a friend had told us that the week days are supposedly the least busy and have the shortest wait time. WRONG. They were passing out cards for 7:30 slots. 2 hours? Are you kidding me? As Josh and I were discussing if we should stay or not Peyton spied Santa. "Now we have to stay!" says Josh. And he's right. We can't just drag her out of the store after promising her Santa! Crap! How are we going to waste 2 hours?! If it were just us shopping 2 hours would have been no big deal, but we had a 2 year old with us who hadn't seen daylight in like 72 hours who was WILD!
We decided to have dinner at the Fish House (or whatever the place is called). Good food- prices are a bit high. Peyton did well since they sat us next to the fish tank... kept Josh and I entertained too which is a plus. Peyton even had some alligator.
So we finish eating and we still have an hour or so before we should even get in line... we wander aimlessly around the store finding random gifts for a few people and we finally go get in line... and there are like 45 people in front of us with a 7:30 slot. Crap! Should have waited in line while Josh and Peyton ate... oh well. Finally around 7:15 they start letting people from our line go... slowly we start moving... thankfully Josh was able to occupy Peyton while I stood in line. I was actually kind of thankful just to stand and not have to talk to anyone. (ask any teacher around this time of year... we are done talking!).
We get to the front of the line... Peyton is excited... I pose her in front of some fake snow and.... THE CAMERA BATTERY DIES. Seriously!? I had checked the battery earlier, it was low, but not dead... I took a few indoor pictures to play with my settings, all was good. But when we get up to Santa... it's dead. I almost cried... thankfully Bass Pro does a free picture and Josh used his phone camera... but I was still pissed. That camera is heavy... and i just lugged it around for 2 freaking hours. The battery was not COMPLETELY dead... just a little dead. It had PLENTY of juice to take a few nice pictures of Peyton with Santa... but no.... it just couldn't handle the pressure.
Whatever. I'm still bitter.
Anyway, Peyton was a champ seeing Santa! She walked up to him all by herself and started talking to him. Santa, however, was not the most personable guy in the world. I really can't blame him considering her probably gets peed on daily and whatever, but seriously. My kid is cute. And she's only 2. Be excited to see her. When P was getting off his lap I asked her "what does your shirt say?" She said "Dear Santa I love you!" and Santa's reply? "Oh! Would you like a candy cane?" Really Santa?
I guess our time with Santa was just fine. The pictures are cute. We've done our civic duty. (I'm pretty sure visiting Santa is a civic duty?)
Next year my battery will be charged.
Here are our previous Santa pictures.
2009:
2010:
