Meeting Santa: The First Attempt

Alden had his 6 month doctor's appointment on December 6th and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to take the boys to see Santa while Michael was already off for the afternoon.  Alden's check up went fine and our biggest ordeal was keeping Kellan entertained, off the floor and out of the trash can, all while continuously reassuring him that HE didn't have to get a shot.  We told him this at Alden's 4 month doctor's appointment too and he ended up getting the flu shot while we were there...I hope he doesn't have trust issues because of this.

He's such a smart cookie.  As soon as we pulled into the doctor's office parking lot he said "Its not my turn!  Its brother's turn!"

So Alden's appointment went great but he is SO wiggly and squirmy now!  He was trying to eat the paper on the exam table, flipping over and spinning in circles on his belly.  I sat Kellan in a chair with my purse, handed him my phone, and he immediately got to looking up his favorite shows on YouTube.  Thinking he was entertained, Michael and I both were standing at the exam table talking to Alden and doing our own check-up before the doctor came in.  Do other parents do this?  I think we're just obsessive.  Anyway, when I turned around, this is what I found standing in the middle of the room.

Someone was digging in mommy's purse.  He was wearing my sunglasses and even had my clutch in hand.  :)  I think he looks like Elton John when he wears my sunglasses.  Hilarious!

After the doctor, we had a late lunch at a nearby Mexican restaurant and made our way up to Richmond to go see this Legendary Santa that I kept hearing so much about.  It never occurred to me to check times.  I assumed this Santa was like the regular mall Santas and would be around all night.  Boy was I wrong.  About 10 minutes away at 4:00 pm  I double checked the location and noticed on the website that Santa departed at 5:00 pm sharp, line or no line.  We decided to check it out anyway and see what the wait was like.

Apparently they had such a crowd waiting before we got there that they had already cut the line off.  This was (and still is) crazy to me!  Santa leaves at 5?  And he leaves little children waiting in line?  There was nothing that we could do about it though and now I had a little boy in the backseat telling me that he was going to go see Santa Claus...probably because that was what his mommy had been telling him all day.

So if we couldn't see the Legendary Santa we decided that we had to find some kind of Santa.  First stop was Richmond's Grand Illumination downtown.  We had no idea this was going on and happened to find out about it an hour before it started.  So we zoomed downtown to find a parking spot so that we would be ready when all the Christmas lights were turned on.  

We were SO unprepared for this event.  When we left the house earlier that day it was 80 degrees outside.  I was wearing a light weight shirt, the boys were dressed in long sleeves and jeans but I hadn't brought them a coat, and Michael was wearing short sleeves.  We found a parking spot just across the street but were trying to figure out how we were going to keep everybody warm in what is now a very cool night.  Of course any other time our backseat is full of discarded coats and blankets...this night there was none to be found.  We ended up pulling the old towel (that protects the seat) out from under Alden's car seat and wrapped that around Kellan.  He also wore the ONE hat that we could find.  Alden went in the stroller and we wrapped him in Kellan's Christmas play sheep costume.  Michael, who never, ever takes a coat anywhere, had put his fleece jacket in the car so I wore that.  I do believe we used every piece of scrap fabric that we had in the car.  Poor daddy made due in his short sleeves.

Anyone that might have had some crazy notion that I had it all together...trust me I don't.  My baby wore a sheep's costume to keep him warm.

We really thought there would be a Santa there so that Kellan could see him and we could get started on our Christmas shopping.  No such luck...no Santa to be found.  It was cold and very, very crowded and its just no fun pushing a double stroller through that many people.  After the lights came on we headed back to the car and to the mall to find Santa.  

We found one but Kellan was less than impressed and only wanted to ride the coin operated cars in the food court.  The majority of them didn't work so we finally got him in to see Santa.  There was no line at all so we walked right up to him but he wouldn't get in his lap.  He wouldn't even stand close enough to him so that if I did take a picture, they wouldn't have been in the same frame.  With daddy's help he did finally whisper that he wanted presents and a train.  I just decided that he was getting good practice in so that when we finally did get to see the Legendary Santa, he was going to be a professional.

We did a little Christmas shopping and made one last stop at Chick-fil-A before we headed back home.  Kellan LOVED the indoor playground and little brother enjoyed watching him just as much :)

The next morning we had tickets to a Girl Scout troop sponsored, pancake "Breakfast with Santa" at FoSho, a local restaurant.  Kellan was way more excited about the pancakes than he was Santa.  When we walked in the door Kellan saw Santa and turned around and walked right back outside.  After eating, we talked Kellan into going over to Santa.  We convinced him to stand beside him and it was so cute to watch him try to hold Alden's hand without actually having to LOOK at Santa.  He did talk to Santa a little bit standing with daddy from a safe distance away.  He mentioned something about his favorite TV show, Paw Patrol, and to his (mine and Michael's too!) amazement, Santa knew the names of all the characters!  

Alden just doesn't understand what the big deal is...Santa has a pretty comfy lap!

I'll post soon about finally getting to meet the Legendary Santa!