Santa Claus is coming to town

This weekend Brandon and I braved the mall so that Natalie could have her picture taken with Santa.  The pictures started at 10:00 AM so we got to the mall about quarter of which ended up being good timing.  The line wasn't too bad yet.  However, it does make me super curious to know how early the first person in line got there.

We made small talk with the couple in front of us.  Their son was three months old.  About a third of the way through the line he started fussing and was hungry.  They panicked - they are a strictly breastfeeding family.  Brandon told them not to worry that we would hold their spot in line.  You could see this woman go from mortified to relieved to grateful in the blink of an eye.  They got out of line and went to feed the baby.  When they got back in line they thanked Brandon profusely.  I couldn't help at swoon at how compassionate my husband was to them.  He reminded me that it was us last year and every parent in that line should understand.  The group of women two back from us who, mind you, had no children with them and had just been talking about how they dreaded standing in this line with their children for fear that they would make a scene, made a snarky comment to the couple behind us about holding their space in line so they could go shop.  I nearly lost it. Where was their compassion? Needless to say, I explained to Natalie that Daddy did the right thing and that those three women were definitely on Santa's naughty list.

We finally made our way to see Santa.  Moment of truth.  How would Natalie take it?  Last year she handled it well.  She also was a month old and had no idea what was happening. 

Brandon passed her off to Santa.  At first she was fine.  And then Natalie and I made eye contact.  She realized that Dada was not holding her and Mama was too far away.  Bring on the water works.  And the most adorable picture with Santa I could have hoped for :)

I did get one of her before the meltdown, but she was not looking at the camera.  I could have gotten more but Santa' elf scolded me and told me that cell phones were not allowed at the North Pole... seriously?  This year the mall also offered a family picture without Santa as part of the package.  Of course, since it wasn't going to cost us anything additional, we agreed to do it. 

Brandon isn't thrilled with how it turned out and it's not a great picture of me either, but our little ham bone is so adorable so I love it.  All in all, I would say it was a successful trip to the mall and we survived another visit with the mall Santa :)