Santa Baby

Cal and Riggs went to see SANTA yesterday!!! Lindsay and I grew up going to Marshall Fields in Chicago and seeing Santa was a VERY big deal. We wore our Christmas outfits (in order to impress Santa and hope he'll bring us our favorite gifts) and were mesmerized by the Winter Wonderland where Santa "worked". Since this was my first year going since we were kids, I expected a similar experience for Cal and Riggs. We went online and discovered that Santa was at Macy's in San Diego and Lindsay and I (gasp) trudged to the mall on Christmas Eve for their first pictures! Well, times have changed. At least this Santa HQ is nothing like when we were kids. Instead of a Winter Wonderland of moving elves, snow, giant presents, etc...Santa lives in...a hut. Just Santa, a bench and a photographer. Hmph. Alas, we got the kids all psyched up (okay, so we got all psyched up) for our visit. Photos were $25/each (!!!!), but the good news is they let you take your own, so I went Paparazzi Crazy during the 3 minute visit.


We were the 10th people in line...ready to go at 8:30am for the 9:00am opening!


Ready for Santa!


Flying like the reindeer

Riggs, typically a super-smiley baby, was so confused by Santa that he just kept staring at him (instead of the camera). Cal was, well...a 5 week old...i.e. a sack'o'potatoes (but an adorable sack'o'potatoes!).





Cal did seem to like his moment alone to shine:



Hilarious experience!!! Well worth the $25 for entertainment value alone. Lindsay and I had a great time at the mall regardless and I'm so grateful we got to share this Christmas experience! Thank you Grandma Bryand for the adorable outfit and Kitty for the super-cute "Santa Baby" hats!

I did shoot a quick video (13 seconds) of the experience to demonstrate the chaos...and this is while they are just 1 month and 7 months!!! I can't imagine when they are 2 or 3.



This morning we woke up at 5:15am (oy) to feed Riggs & Cal, then spent the morning enjoying champagne (our family tradition), opening gifts and awaiting "The Christmas Story" to start over on 24-hour repeat (Dave & Jon's request...Lindsay & I have made it through life without actually SEEING this movie and they claim it's a cardinal sin).

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!