Picture with Santa

Last year when we took Peyton to get her picture with Santa it hadn't even crossed my mind that she might be scared of him.  So when we placed her in his lap and she lost it I was very surprised.  Of course I wanted to buy the picture with her looking all pretty in her little Christmas dress with a big smile on her face but the picture that we ended up getting was far from that....she was crying and had her arms reaching out for us to come save her from this scary strange man.   At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to buy the picture that they had taken of my little girl looking so upset, but then everyone told me that I had to.....that one day I would look back at that picture and it would be one of my favorite pictures of her with Santa.  Well I did buy the picture, and while I don't know that it will be my favorite picture, I do think that it will be funny for Peyton to one day look back at and see how upset she was to be sitting on the jolly ole man's lap.  All of that said, I was determined that we were not going to end up with the same response this year when we took her to see Santa.  As soon as Thanksgiving was over, Matt and I started talking up Santa to her, trying to get her excited about seeing him.  Then, when I saw that Blue Willow was having an Elf Magic Party and Santa was going to be there I jumped at the opportunity to buy a ticket so she could see him.  Well the day of the party came and I got Peyton all dressed up in her cute smocked dress and red puddle jumpers and was so excited to see if things had improved from last year.  Unfortunately, they hadn't.  Once she saw Santa and realized that she was going to be sitting on his lap she started crying and clinging to Matt.  Although Matt was able to get her  to let go long enough to sit her in Santa's lap, she was having no part of staying there so we quickly jumped in the picture too.  Needless to say, this picture didn't turn out much better than the one last year.  I wasn't too discouraged just yet because it wasn't even December and I knew that we still had some time to turn things around.

Over the course of the next month, we continued to talk about Santa to Peyton, watching lots of Christmas moves and reading Christmas books.  One day I met my mom at Brookwood mall and while Peyton and I were waiting to meet up with her at the food court, I pushed P over in her stroller to take a peek at Santa.  He was super nice and pulled out a candy cane for her so we strolled up to him to say hello.  He started talking to Peyton, asking her what her name was and what she wanted for Christmas.  She wasn't too sure about him but did manage to take the candy cane and whisper "thank you" without shedding any tears!  Yay for us!  Our victory was short lived....a couple of weekends after that Matt and I took Peyton and two of our nephews, Will and Andy to see Santa at Vestavia Country Club.   I just knew that if P went with Will and Andy to see Santa that she would be fine and she was, just up until it came time for their turn.  Once again she started crying and clinging to Matt.  Matt placed P on Santa's lap and her cousins stood on either side and I started snapping away hoping to get a cute picture of the three of them.  While it didn't turn out to be the most successful photo op, Peyton did sit in Santa's lap long enough for us to get a picture and she didn't get as upset as she had at the Blue Willow.

We ended up having yet another opportunity for P to see Santa at Matt's work Christmas Party.  Although she was a little hesitant and didn't really smile, Peyton did sit with Santa for a good 2 minutes or so and never cried.....maybe she was finally starting to warm up to him after all!

Now that Peyton had seen Santa almost a handful of times, it was finally time to put her cute little Christmas dress on and take her to get her picture made with Santa at Brookwood Mall like we had the previous two years.  Since we waited until almost the last minute (two days before Christmas), there was a small line when we got there but thankfully it moved fast and we didn't have to wait too long.  I was fully prepared that Matt and I might have to get in the picture in order to get Peyton to actually sit on Santa's lap, but once Matt placed her in Santa's lap she seemed okay so we stepped back and I started snapping photos.  Peyton did such a great job!!  She even told Santa what she wanted for Christmas when he asked.....candy corn haha!  Guess all of our hard work finally paid off! Here's hoping next year that first time's the charm!