Ho Ho Ho

Well, Breakfast with Santa 2011 was a flop. Ryan and Charley have never liked Santa and have usually been crying in pictures with Santa even though Pat and I go with them. This year was even worse. We walked in the Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall and Charley immediately stopped in her tracks and said she wanted to go home. She started to tear up but we told her that we would sit in a far-away corner where she couldn't see Santa. Charley wouldn't sit in her own seat (one of us held her) and didn't eat. She looked sick and pathetic the whole time. She didn't talk and mostly layed her head on Pat's shoulder (the mintue we left she perked up and was normal again.) Partway through the meal she said she didn't want Santa to eat with us. I think she was expecting Santa to come sit down with us and eat because we kept calling it "Breakfast with Santa."

Both girls adamantly refused to go near him, even Ryan. Usually we make them and get the funny crying and scared picture but this year they really were scared and I fear it would have been something they would talk about with their therapist in 20 years. They happened to see Santa at Walmart a week ago and felt sure that he knew what they wanted (Pat told Santa because they wouldn't talk to him). Charley covered her eyes with her hands. I asked Ryan if she thought she would sit in Santa's lap when she is 6 but she said that she would when she is 10.

Pat was telling someone about our experience and told them that although he took his girls to see Santa it was really like taking them to a haunted house-ha!

Ryan would like a computer this year but a few days after she had Pat tell Santa she changed her mind and said she wanted a real carriage with four horses. We explained that Santa didn't bring big things like that and she changed it to "just a carriage that we can hook to the back of the car."

When Charley saw Santa last week she told Pat to tell him that she wanted a dog house for her dog named Pluto. This is interesting because although she did go through a phase of playing alot with a stuffed dog she named Pluto we haven't seen it lately or heard it mentioned. Originally, she said she wanted a Dora guitar (which I do believe her Fayetteville aunt and uncle have purchased her).

So, we'll have to see what Santa has to bring us!! Mostly we want to focus on Jesus and we already have the best gift ever in Him. If only we can all remember this at this time of the year!!