Santa #1 (University Mall)

I told Santa and the elves not to worry if Annie cries, . . . I just love how her arms and feet are reaching toward Mamma! So different from our SC Santa Train where Annie was simply interested in Santa's beard! (That was less than a month ago!) But I'm afraid that in that month, Annie has truly entered "Mamma Mode." (Do you remember her reaching for me when Daddy was holding her at the Christmas party?) *sigh* It seems that these days, only Mamma will do. : ) On a different note, though, isn't it an absolutely precious picture of Leia Rose? And the best thing about it all? Absolutely NO line, . . . and Santa had a REAL beard!!!
And I guess after her Santa experience, Leia Rose felt like Annie needed a little extra love. What a sweet sister picture!

But afterwards Leia commented, "I don't think that was the real Santa." [Uh oh.] "What makes you think that, Leia." "He didn't sound like the real Santa." This one did have a Southern accent and talked kind of softly, and didn't really sport a "ho, ho, ho" or anything. I suppose she was okay with the theory that he may have been one of Santa's helpers. *sigh* Still, some of the magic is already lost. And it was lost the other day when Leia Rose said, "Santa looks different." [Uh oh.] Or perhaps it was because Santa was confused by Leia's request for "dino putty." Hey, I would be, too. Or perhaps it was because he called her "Leah" at first. : )

Or perhaps what she really needed was a snack from Chic-fil-A, and a picture with a great big cow. : )
For dinner we went to Red Robin, and Annie was testing their promise of "bottomless fries." If she could talk, she would have said, "You call this bottomless fries? I'll show you bottomless fries!"

And on the way to do more Christmas shopping and going out to dinner and driving to Durham for the next Santa experience, Leia Rose learned how to blow up a balloon for the first time!!! (For her, the thing that worked was to tell her to "push through the hard part."