I didn't get around to ordering or mailing any of the toddler's "picture with Santa" Christmas cards this year, except for the three little overpriced ones I got when we took the pic, but that's what Facebook and blogs are for, right? I wrote a post earlier this month about her first encounter with Santa, and this is the final product. She was all giggles, and is so happy. 

It's been a very happy Christmas season for us. I'm pretty much holiday partied out. The toddler's grandparents took her to a holiday Christmas concert last night where they featured musica latina and songs like El Burrito de Belen. I was so exhausted that I passed and stayed home and dozed out to HGTV House Hunters (I get way too addicted once I start watching). But tonight we'll be driving to somewhere in Virginia where my mom wants to go see this huge lights display. As long as I get to sit in the backseat of the car, I'm in.

Yesterday was a rite of passage for the toddler: her first visit to a mall Santa. My mom and I took her, and I turned to my mom at one point and asked if we, meaning me and my three brothers, ever went to see Santa, because if I had I don't remember and she answered in four words: "I had four kids." Okay, fair enough. Plus, the nearest mall was 60 miles away, and we saw the Santa that came to the school, anyway. 

I hadn't planned on taking K this year but I got totally sucked in by a Groupon ad, and since I'm totally a Groupon and Living Social junkie I couldn't pass the deal up. I decided to go mid-day, mid-week because I had seen the crowd of frazzled families waiting patiently between velvet ropes at this particular mall last year. We went through the mall beforehand looking for new shoes, to no avail, (how hard is it to find size 7 black shoes de charol? Impossible!) and when we finally got to Santa's little village I almost had an attack when I saw it was totally empty. No one in line, but wait. Is that really Santa chatting it up with the two young girls working there? What the Herman? I was still a little confused when he started to wave us in. At first the toddler K was pulling back as we got closer. Even I felt nervous for her. But he spoke gently (not like that loud Santa in a Christmas Story), and as he asked her more questions, "What do you want for Christmas? What's your name? Do you want Santa to bring you a doll?" she loosened up and didn't even seem to realize I had lifted her onto his lap. She was soooooo serious and would not crack a smile. But Santa kept on with his questions and the camera clicked and clicked and then he asked if she wanted a tickle on the knee and there it was and bam, SMILE! Aw, trick from Santa school. Smooth.

Check out the scene as it unfolded: