Awesome Santa

Today Max met Santa for the second time. Last year was not so bad... I don't even think he realized there was a big, jolly stranger holding him last year. We placed him on Santa's lap while dangling a fun toy just out of the camera's sight and 'SNAP!' viola! Santa pic. I knew this year was going to be a bit more tricky, and I was completely prepared and okay with a pic of Santa holding a freaking out, tearful Max. Isn't that how the toddler/Santa shot is supposed to look anyways?

We went to Marketplace mall, and thank God it was not the same Santa as last year. (That Santa looked as if he had fallen off the wagon and landed in a Santa suit) This Santa was awesome! He insisted that we not push Max. He had a little bouncy ball and played catch with Max for about 45 minutes. It was quite the snowy day, so Santa didn't have many other visitors. When other kids would show up, we would step aside and let them see Santa, then resume playing catch. Max was very reluctant to get close to Santa, but enjoyed playing catch! Feeling like we weren't getting anywhere, Santa encouraged us to go do some shopping and come back.

We stepped away for about 15 minutes, then approached the workshop again... "Hey Max, look! There's Santa!" Max approached to play catch again, and was definitely warming up to Santa. It took another 30 minutes and a few pretzels before Max would willingly climb onto Santa's lap. So after an hour and a half, we were able to snap some happy pics! Unfortunately we did not notice that Max had pretzel drool all over his chin. Oops! This Santa definitely earned his tip!

Can you see the crap on his face? Ugh...

Max was clapping in this pic... Yeah for Santa Claus!