First Visit with Santa Claus (and the Mrs. too!)

Oliver didn't cry as hard as I thought he would while sitting on Santa's lap. Considering that he cries himself into all out hysteria whenever I leave the roam (he cries so hard sometimes that I fear the neighbors will hear and wonder what's going over here) that I thought a strange guy with a big beard and a funny outfit would be too much for him. But he let me walk him up towards Santa and Mrs. Claus and even set him on Santa's lap before letting the tears flow. We took the requisite pictures which captured Oliver either crying, stuffing his hand in his mouth or both.

"Kind of what I expected," conceded Chris.

"That actually went a lot better than I thought it would," I replied.

When discussing Christmas traditions, Chris said he really wanted to get a picture of Oliver with Santa Claus. While I didn't immediately veto the idea of taking Oliver to the mall, a look at the prices they charge for just one print was enough to convince Chris to skip that idea. But when I read on my moms group website about "Cocoa with the Clauses" put on by the Lions Club at the St. Anthony Community Center, I knew we had our compromise. Chris would get his picture of Oliver on Santa's lap and the event was free, which made me happy. We didn't have professional pictures taken, but they let parents snap as many as they wanted with their own cameras.

On our way out, I heard one mother lament to the grandfatherly Lions members staffing the table at the entrance that this would be her last year at Cocoa with the Clauses. Her daughter is in third grade now - the exact age I was when I probably had my picture taken with Santa just to humor my mom, not because I believed there was a magical man who flew around the globe on a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer. That point will come with Oliver in a blink of an eye, but until then, I've still got a couple more years of photo ops. And maybe Oliver will warm up to Santa by then.