Well That Wasn't Too Bad!

Today was the big day when I lug all five kids downtown to visit with Santa and have lunch at our traditional place. I was dreading it, to tell you the truth. I knew that Pickle wouldn't want to touch Santa with a 39 1/2 foot pole and would cry during the brief time I forced her to sit with him for a photo and that the lines for both Santa and the restaurant would be crazy-long. Not to mention there was a big snowstorm this morning and I was expecting the driving to be treacherous.

Just to put the line thing in perspective for you--when my sister and I went to this restaurant a couple of years ago at Christmastime, we waited in the "beeper" line for about an hour to learn that wait just to get into another line was 4 1/2 hours!! It was sickening. And even worse--we actually waited!

Anyway, today went nothing like the horrible scenario in my head. The driving was fine and we parked easily. When we arrived, my sister already had the beeper ( she didn't have to wait at all) and we joined her in the quickly-moving Santa line.

Then the bigger shocker--Pickle actually liked Santa! She went right up to him and told him what she wanted for Christmas "Five dolls, a hair horse and a hair brush" and even gave him a hug! You could have knocked me over with a feather! When we saw Santa at that breakfast a couple weeks ago, she wouldn't go anywhere near him.

Then we went to the restaurant and were seated immediately. And the kids all sat down and ate! There wa no crying, screaming, spilling or choking. It was a Christmas miracle!!

Here's the Santa pic--I took a bunch more but my computer is completely out of memory so I can't download them right now. I hope Santa brings me a new laptop for Christmas! And just for fun--here's the Santa pic from last year:

I looked for the one from the year before that but couldn't find it....

OMG! It's Christmas Eve! Can't wait to hear what everyone is up to. We'll be going to my sister's for a party. Have a great Christmas Eve!!