Ho Ho Ho

The boys have had the opportunity to visit with the fat man in the red suit two times this week! Yesterday, Santa took time away from toy-making and Christmas Eve route-planning to visit the Toddle Inn. The boys were thrilled to be able to wear their jammies to school (Dad was also pretty excited about this development, as it was his day to get the kids ready for school and for bed while I was in Boston), eat all sorts of Christmas goodies, and receive a special present from Santa. It appears that Santa gets around Southern Maine, as we also spotted him at the mall Monday evening. This being Ethan's 4th Christmas, and having never done the traditional stand-in-line-at-the-mall-to-sit-on-Santa's-lap outing, I figured it was time. I assumed we would avoid the lines by going on a Monday afternoon - this was not a correct assumption. But at least there was an extensive train set to keep the boys busy while we waited. And lucky for Adam, there was another little boy in line who enjoys spitting and hitting just as much as he does, so spitting contests and wrestling matches kept him occupied.

When it was finally our turn to see Santa, Adam wanted nothing to do with him. I couldn't even get him to sit on Santa's lap for one minute. Ethan, on the other hand, jumped up there and hugged Santa like he was an old friend. Then the two them proceeded to have a long, private conversation while Mommy was asked by the slightly rude elves to "stand behind the red rope and take only two pictures". This is, of course, all very easy to do while holding a scared two-year old and dodging a line full of Santa-crazed kids. So please forgive the quality of the resulting photos. I swear they also purposely dim the lights if you don't choose to purchase photos taken by the nasty elves.

My bah-humbugs aside, seeing Ethan get SO excited about his visit with Santa more than made up for all the hassle. On the way home, he just sat quietly with a huge smile on his face, and I could tell he was replaying the magic of that moment in his head. I asked him what he and Santa had talked about, and he said "Mom! I can't tell you that!". He did say he told Santa what Adam wants for Christmas (paper) since Adam couldn't speak to it himself. He wouldn't tell me what he asked Santa for, but I am guessing it was either batteries, garbage, or non-spicy toothpaste, since those are the three things he is begging for this year. I'm sure I will remember these days fondly when he gets bigger and it isn't quite so easy to make all his wishes come true.

Feverish thumb-sucking begins as we get closer to Santa

Posing for Mom in front of the (hard-to-see) train set

Man-to-man chat