It's that time of year... time to visit with good ol' St. Nick. Time to sit on his velvety red knee and tell him what we want for Christmas before smiling a big cheesy grin and having "the picture" taken.
We geared up, dressed in holiday threads, and were off. I was worried about Middle Little making it the distance in the car, as she recently has had an issue with car sickness. I gave her my phone with some holiday games on it to try and keep her occupied during the trip. So, Christmas tunes filling the interior of the car, and a Santa game in play and we were on our way...
We just made it into the parking lot where our Santa awaited in the building, and Middle Little was just starting to cough and sputter in the backseat. Holy crap I thought, there goes the Christmas dress and smiling pics with Santa! Luckily, as soon as the car stopped, she was good. A little love and she was all ready to see that ol' fat man in velvet.
We walk into the Bass Pro Shop around 4:00 p.m. (we enjoy this so much more than going to the mall, etc... Bass Pro has all kinds of neat stuff to look at/do while you're there) and a friendly Santa Elf gives us our ticket to see Santa. Our time, 7:00 p.m. What the? Okay, deep breath. We will just have to occupy two small children, much less ourselves for 3 hours. It's all good.
Checking out the live fish...
Checking out the merchandise. Fishing rods proudly displayed right in front of the large live fish tank... what must those poor fish be feeling with a view like that? Hmmmm, just seems so... wrong.
Middle Little not too sure about meeting the rather large Polar bear...
I guess when you're two and you see this coming at you, it doesnt exactly scream, lets be friends.
Our little Brother Bear the bear slayer... although, now that I really look at this brown bear, he appears to be soused/slizzard/a good time party bear...
All this waiting around and bear slaying and we needed sustenance if we were going to carry on our mission to see the jolly ol' elf himself. We took off for the restaurant located inside... neat place, they brew their own ale and you can see the brewery behind glass walls. We enjoyed some hors d'oeuvres, a dark ale for daddy and a blonde ale for momma, a bit of coloring (and a bite of color - Littlest Little decided the blue crayon looked tasty), and then dinner was served... delish.
This girl loves her some ketchup! (Dipping tortilla chips in ketchup like hotsauce.)
Hear that Heinz? Do I see a new spokesmodel in your future?
With full tummies, a refreshing drink and some good conversation... we were psyched up and ready to seek out Santa! We strolled through the store and then, we came upon Frosty the Snowman, we had arrived. Poor Littlest Little, he just couldnt keep his little peepers open any longer. He had made it all this way.... to sleep. I'm sure he was dreaming about Santa though.
Nearly 4 hours later (that little Santa Elf lied to us... 7o'clock it was not), lots of pep talk and excitement over seeing Santa and what we were going to ask him for and this was it, the moment we had been waiting for. I give you, the Littles 2010 Santa pictures....
Yes, Josh slept through it, and poor Abbie screamed her little ass off. Sorry Santa. I have to admit, I love these photos. These are not just ordinary sitting on Santa's lap smiling photos, no my friends, these photos have character. An awesome addition to the family album.
On the way out, we could not leave without having a spin on the reindeer carousel. Made it all better and brought back happy little grins.
I love the look of wonder on his face watching the carousel slowly spin with its twinkling lights and Christmas sounds.
Too much fun. It was time to click the ol' holiday Chucks together three times and repeat, "There's no place like home, there's no place like home..." See you soon Santa!
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