First Santa Picture

This past Saturday my work had a "Breakfast with Santa" that they hold every year in our cafeteria. (This is yet another reason why I LOVE where I work!)  We didn't go last year since Little L wouldn't have really been able to enjoy it but we knew she would love it this year.  They do a fun breakfast for everyone with french toast sticks, fruit, yogurt, cheesy scrambled eggs, and yummy donut holes!  There is a choir and small orchestra made up of people from my work and they sing and play Christmas songs to keep the mood festive!  There are also tables that have information about how Christmas is celebrated across the world that are staffed by employees from that country (for instance, my boss is actually from Germany so she was working at a table that had fun traditional German desserts, decorations, etc.)  And last, but certainly not least, there is Santa, Mrs. Claus, and the Elves!

I had heard in years past that this event gets extremely crowded and the lines can get really long so we decided to try and get there right when it started at 8:30am.  Unfortunately, the weather had other plans and it snowed a good 6 inches on us the night before so the hubby had to get up and snow plow before we could go anywhere.  That meant we didn't get to the breakfast until almost 9:30am but it turns out everyone was deterred by the snow.  The lines were never long for anything which was really nice but we still decided to go get our picture taken with Santa first thing so Little L wouldn't get too messy after eating breakfast.  While we stood in line we got to talk to Mrs. Claus, who gave Little L a cookie and then it was the big "moment"!  Little L was actually excited to see Santa but as soon as I tried to put her on his lap she lost it!  So we were able to capture the "classic" first Santa picture in all its glory!

Sorry for the not so great quality of the picture!  They actually gave us a polaroid that I scanned in.  The hubby took some pictures too but none of them were as perfect as this one!

You can see the donut hole and the cookie we gave her to hopefully distract but that didn't really work!  :)  After the baby torture picture taking was over, they gave us a bag full of "goodies" (mostly fun little leftovers from the stuff they put in cereal boxes as prizes...race car, book, markers, squirty toys, and even a VHS tape!).   Then an "elf" made a balloon animal kitten for Little L (which I think was her most prized gift of the day!).  After eating and saying hi to some co-workers (it's always fun to meet co-workers' spouses and offspring!) it was time to head home.  As we left the cafeteria Little L started saying "more, more, more"!  She was having such a great time she didn't want to leave!  Unfortunately, both Little L and I had the sniffles so we had to get home and rest up.  We were also planning on attending our church's Christmas show, which is AMAZING, but with the two of us not feeling very great we decided to stay home for a low key weekend.  (We are both feeling much better today!  Praise Jesus!)

So, while this picture won't make it onto our Christmas cards (which I still need to finish!) I know it will be a picture we treasure for years to come and I hope it made you smile!

Remember, only 19 days til Christmas!  Make sure you soak up some joy and laughter while you wait for Baby Jesus' birthday celebration!