Oh Santa!

Making the trip to visit good ol’ St. Nick is SUCH A PAIN IN THE ASS!! 

This time of year can give anyone anxiety. The crowds and lines are nuts!! BUT I know doing these visits with Santa will be times my kids remember when they grow up (well I sure hope so anyway!)

 

I opted to try BassPro Shops mid-week BEFORE Christmas break.  And I have to say…it was the best experience I have had there at Christmas time ever!  I arrived at 3:55pm and they were handing out cards for a 6pm return! Freakin’ crazy! I risked the standby wait.  BEST DECISION EVER!! I was in, photographed and free by 4:32pm! woot woot.

The line wasn’t bad. Owen (the best big brother ever) played some Ring Around the Roses (a hundred times) to keep lil crazy Ella occupied.  And Nana did a good job pointing out all the cool stuff to keep Ella distracted too!

I had a feeling that Ella wasn’t going to be too fond of Santa…She had the death grip on Nana’s arm. It was funny, but not funny at the same time.  So Owen had the lone walk up to Santa…and he wasn’t a bit nervous. He is surely at the PERFECT age. He loves the idea of Santa…isn’t scared BUT is starting to question all the “magical rules” of Christmas and elves, etc.

 

Nana was almost crying just watching Ella freak out! She is such a softy!

Nana “saved” Ella…and gave Owen some time alone with the big man.  He explained that he wanted to new Skylanders Trap Team.  Santa explained that he’ll try really hard to get that under the tree on Xmas morning and gave both candy canes. Ella, still in tears, said “Tant You” for the candy and happily walked away.

And of course once she was far enough away from Santa she was full of smiles!

One of the awesome things about “Santa’s Wonderland” at BassPro is the free little games and activities they have. On weekends when its packed these are NOT do-able…but since it wasn’t crazy Owen got to play a bit.

I don’t remember ever going to see Santa as a kid…I mean, we all know that Bernie and Liam weren’t really into those types of things and I turned out just fine (after a little bit of therapy! haha) I’m sure there will come a year when Owen will be too old but Ella might still believe…I pray  he plays along and doesn’t ruin it for her like my brother did to me!  I’ll never forget the year that my brother told me Santa wasn’t real…I didn’t believe him. UNTIL he brought me into my parents room (which we were forbidden to go into…ALWAYS) and in their closet, hiding was OUR TOYS! That was it…but we played along for another few years for the sake of my parents! (Sorry mom! haha)

Poor Ella was scared of Santa, The Reindeer, The Snowmen, anything that was bigger than her and Christmas like! Soooo that means practically everything in the store!  haha  And my Goodness little Owen has grown up SO much over this year. Nuts.

 
Ella wouldn’t let Nana put her down in front of the snowman for a pic…drama queen!  Last year we attempted BassPro but it was crazy so we took that picture of Owen by the snowman and then headed to the Victoria Gardens Santa and paid our $20 for a pic (desperate times call for desperate measures!)

 

Here are our Santa visits over the years…so awesome.  They’ll appreciate all this one day! hahaha right?

So another thing checked off the Christmas To-Do list!! 15 days and counting!