Our Trip to See Santa!

Last week I heard from the lady at our local coffee stop that the Redlands Mall had a much shorter line for Santa then did Victoria Gardens. Because I was planning on dragging Nathanael along for the occassion, I decided to spare him the misery of screaming kids waiting in line for hours to see Santa at VG and opted for the Redlands Mall instead (Who knew Redlands had a mall???!!! Well, believe me, the term "mall" is used very loosely in Redlands) So off we went last Thursday after finding the perfect holiday outfit for Zech to met Santa in, complete with shoes of course! We get to Santa's depot and low and behold not a single person in line! We are so very excited!!! I didn't bother putting Zech's shoes on at home because he'd probably kick them off before we even got to the mall. I ask Nathanael to help me put on Zech's shoes....the ones I stood in line for 45 min to buy at Babies R Us...the ones that were the last ones on the shelf, that had no pricetag so the cashier made me wait and wait to figure out how to ring them up...the shoes that probably cost me more then they were worth because the stupid cashier couldn't find the right price and charged me some random price and I let her because I was sick of standing there looking at her dumb face (I know so Christmas spirit of me)...yup THOSE shoes. So as I'm trying to get them on, Zech's squirming, starts fussing. The "elves" at Santa's depot start saying things like "uh oh" and "umm mom you sure you want to make him wear shoes" and "you don't want him grumpy to see santa"...I calmly explain I went through a lot of trouble for these shoes and so he's going to wear them. Still Zech wants nothing to do with them and the back arching and screams begin. Nathanael looks at me knowingly...all the while staying quiet because he knows me too well...finally, after breaking a sweat, I say "Fine, no damn shoes!" and the elves and Nathanael cheer in delight. Zech instantly stops fussing and the result is the picture you see below, sans shoes...but I got a border put on it so you can't see he only has white socks on. The wallet size, however, tells the whole story because there is no border on those ones :). Hey at least we have a story for Zech's first Santa visit right?!