Every year since Lilly's first Christmas we have taken her to get her picture with Santa. Every year we have returned to our "not favorite" mall because they have a fantastic Santa. Real white beard, jolly tummy, sweet face... the whole package. I loved the fact that he not only looked like the perfect Santa, but that all of her pictures were with the same Santa. I mean, at some point, she's going to notice, right?. So, it has always been worth the trip to the mall that has nothing to offer except for it's fantastic Santa. (You can see where this is going, can't you?)
So, let's travel down memory lane a bit, shall we?
Look at the sweetness.
Bless his "belly like a bowl full of jelly"!
Look at that little girl grow!
So right after Thanksgiving we went to said mall to make sure Santa was still there. Relief filled my soul when I saw his happy dancing eyes looking out from his gold spectacles.
Things have been busy, we've all battled colds, so yesterday was the first chance we've had to go get the 2009 Santa picture. We set it up to meet Bekah at the mall and go to lunch afterwards as a little pre-Christmas fun. Lilly was dresssed in (one of) her darling Christmas outfits. We waited in line, chose our package, and finally rounded the corner. I think I may have audibly gasped when I saw that not only was this not our Santa, but it was a horrible Santa! He was skinny, grumpy looking (the guy couldn't smile to save his life) and his beard... his beard! Yes, it was real, but so were the yellow nicotine stains that saturated it! I was agahst.
I asked the photo lady what happened to the other Santa and all she could tell me was that he'd been transfered. She didn't know where. This led me to believe one of two things. Either they didn't want people to know where the good Santa had gone for fear of losing all their business, or that dear good Santa had been "transfered" to heaven. Judging by the way his vest was pulling at the buttons last year, that wouldn't be too hard to fathom.
Anyway, Lilly seemed to like hideous Santa and talked with him more than she's ever conversed with any previous Santa. She told him what she would like him to bring her and photo-taker-lady snapped a picture. Lilly looks as sweet as candy in the picture. But Santa? I asked photo-lady why Santa wasn't smiling, to which she replied, "That IS his smile." Oy vay! Let's just let you take a peek, shall we?
Honestly! Can you look any grumpier... "Santa" ?
Quickly doing the math of the days before Christmas and the likelihood of getting to another mall before then, I realized that this was going to be it and forced out the words, "Yes, you can print it." Then, for the rest of the day, I whined to Elliott, Bekah, and anyone else who happened to be nearby how utterly devastated I was by the turn of events.
So, now, I will go place this fine photo into its frame and add it to the collection of Lilly and Santa pictures we proudly display each Christmas. It's painful to know that each and every December for the rest of my days I will have to gaze upon this hideous, angry looking Santa as he haunts me from behind the frame.
I guess the up-side is that when Lilly gets older and asks what happened to Santa between her 3rd and 4th pictures with him, we can warn her about the dangers of smoking. Just look what happened to Santa when he picked up that habit!
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