Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Finally - the SANTA Pic

Santa Pic Plan (est. after picture last year): Take picture early, before lines get too crazy. Target dates right after Thanksgiving.

FAIL.

We didn't make it out to get the Santa pic until today, despite all of the best intentions. We planned to get there right when Santa opened at 10am, but arrived 15 minutes late and ended up waiting an hour. Conveniently, 10am is also Olive's usual naptime so I already knew we were going to be up for a challenge. For a bit of backstory - the kids had already had a small Santa experience at Niko's school party last week. Niko ran right up to the guy and provided his requests while Olive was fine when I was walking her up there and once we got close she let loose with a chorus of "NO TANK YOU!"s.

We pretty much had a replay of the same scene here, with slight differences. Nikos got in his requests for "a Walking Talking Buzz Lightyear" and "Thomas Crashing Into a Mountain" and Olive clung to me with her whole body. The photographer was taking a little while so Santa was bantering with Nikos about how Buzz and Woody were already at the North Pole. The fact that Santa was on a first name basis with Buzz and Woody garnered Olive's attention. "Buzz, Buzz?" she asked him. She then talked to Santa about how she wanted a baby and how she saw Mickey at Disneyland. Woohoo, this may go better than I envisioned - I naively thought. Once the photographer signaled she was ready I tried to place Olive on Santa's nap and I got more of the earlier "No Tank You" resistance.

I am amazed that Santa was able to hold onto her in this photo with the way she was squirming. I think Nikos was more worried about the fact that Olive was drowning out his toy requests.

1 comment:

Hap and Sue said...

Cute picture! It looks like Niko is thinking "Oh no, Olive is messing up with Santa!!" I don't remember your pictures with Santa when you were little -- did you cry? How about Taki? This years picture is really cute but I still think the one from last year with Niko and Santa is funnier!!

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas to all!!