The 2007 Christmas Card That Never Was...

So over the last 2 years taking Keira to see Santa hasn't really been an option. She didn't really understand the whole thing (other than the part about presents, she gets that). This year though we thought it would be different. We've been explaining to her over the last few weeks how she needs to take a picture with Santa and tell him what she wants for Christmas. She's really getting all of this now, so we're like cool this will be the year. So, we take her over to Somerset Collection (collection wtf is that, its a fancy pinkey in the air word for "mall") in Troy, MI. This "mall" has the mother of all Santa setups, a three story high castle in the center with the works. It really is a crazy setup like nothing I've ever seen. So we roll up on the 18th (yes the weekend before Thanksgiving, Christie isn't messing around this year) to the "mall" and we make an appointment to see Santa, because at this "mall" you don't wait in line, oh no, we wouldn't dream of that lovey. So we're about an hour away from seeing the big man in red. So we take her to build a bear because her poodle she made there needs some new gear, and we manage to kill the time walking around so now its our turn. We get called into the waiting area. There you wait with a few other families and you can see Santa pretty good, Keira is seeing what is going on and she is REALLY excited about it. We're like "this is awesome!" Now it's Keira's turn... You guessed it! She freaks out as soon as Christie puts her on Santa's lap! She's reaching for me, crying etc. So the photographer calmly asks Santa to check on the reindeer and Santa bounces. Keira winds up calming down a little and we then take a picture as a group, not that Christie and I were prepared to take pictures here but at this point I'm just glad there's not an angry mob waiting on Santa behind us (kudos to the appt thing). So we take a group shot and when we get the CD home notice that Santa managed to get in the shot anyway, not too shabby Santa, clever. So, maybe 2008 will be different :)