I survived Santa

When babies are this young, everything is for the parents, not them.  Sofia will have zero memory of her first trip with Santa and I tried to tell myself that it didn't matter whether we went or not.  I didn't want to wait in the lines and fight the crowds for something that wouldn't matter to her one way or the other.


But when I ordered our Christmas cards and bought her Christmas dresses I found my grinch mood lifting and I was thankful for my friend Kristin who texted me, saying we should go together and it would be less painful.  


This being our first time, I turned to my best friend for all the pointers.  Their little girl is 18 months and they're pros, so when he said to get there early for the ticket to stand in line, I listened.  After I was like, WTF?  I have to get a ticket to see Santa?  Ugh, this better be worth it.


The baby wakes up normally at seven (she's been sleeping semi-well but I'm still too tired to celebrate) so I bundled her up and we headed to the mall.  I got there at 8:30 because it took me that long to get going and I was still rocking the unwashed face and bedhead.  I met Kristin at the line and there was no one around because they didn't hand out the damn tickets until 9!!!!!  So we went to Starbucks and by the time we came back at like 9:05, they'd already started to line up!!  WTF?  Gah, these people are serious!  After getting schooled by the mom ahead of us who had been coming for like eight years we got our tickets (5 and 6, thank you very much) and I headed home to get the baby dressed.


We ended up going with the red outfit due to my lack of accessories for the blue dress.  I couldn't find a silver bow and I didn't really want to buy *another* pair of shoes for Sofia.  I know right?  I never thought I'd hear those words, but she already has four pairs of shoes and she'll probably grow out of those within a month.  I'm trying to space out my clothing purchases for her.  I don't want to buy ten pairs of shoes now and have to do it all again in a month.  So red it was.


The Santa people had it down.  Before I knew it, it was our turn and the guy took her from me in an instant, sat her down on Santa's lap and started snapping away.  I barely had time to snap my own pictures.

At least his hair and beard were real and I was glad he didn't wear a dumb hat.

I would have liked some eyeglasses though.

I may mention that for next time.

Most importantly, she didn't cry!  She's in the stage where she's not sure about other people holding her - sometimes she screams, sometimes she's cool.  I was right there and I was praying this was a cool baby time and it was!  She was a champ!  I didn't get a scrunchy-face smile but she didn't scream and that's a win in my book!

I went ghetto and this is a picture of the picture.

They wanted $125 for the digital file!

Santa ain't *that* cool.

At the last minute I decided not to do the jacket because the collar was flipping up and the detail on the bodice of her dress was covered if I buttoned it.  I think it looked just fine and more than anything, I'm just happy not to have the Screaming Baby picture.  

Because this kind of picture isn't cute.

At all.

The whole thing was over in less than five minutes and I was so freakin glad that we were there early because that damn line stretched to forever.  I couldn't imagine what it must be like on the weekends!

She did such a good job!

It was a big day!  For both of us!  I felt like I'd cleared a mom hurdle by taking her, like I got a merit badge on my Mom Sash.  

I even had a good hair day!  Bonus!

Obligatory bathroom pic, because good hair days

are so few and far between around here.

The ends need work but I was untwisting it in the car on the way up there.

So safe, I know.

Anyway, Sofia's first trip to see Santa was a success and I have a good eight more years to pick outfits!  Next year, blue!  Or silver!  Or green!  Or gold!