My Christmas Just Got Merrier

Have you ever tried to get your kids' pictures made with Santa?  If you can actually get them to sit with Santa without screaming their heads off and get a decent picture, then you have to pay like $10 for a crappy picture they printed off on their HP printer.  Yeah, thanks, Santa's Elves for ripping me off.  Of course, if I had to work at the North Pole making toys for minimum wage, I'd probably be looking for some ways to make some extra cash, too.

Thankfully, since I now live in Laredo, I get an opportunity to let my kids visit Santa Claus without getting ripped off by his under-paid elves.  And where is this magical place that I can get a free picture with Santa?

THE LIBRARY!

That's right.  The library staff reads my kids stories, does a cute puppet show for them, gives them a meal, AND they get to visit Santa complete with a picture.  All for free.

FREE, I tell you!  It's amazing!  I love the library!

Last year my 1-year-old daughter was slightly afraid of Santa, but my 4-year-old son was TERRIFIED!  He hid behind the bookshelves and cried when Santa came out.  So this year I decided I needed to have a talk with my now 5-year-old son.  It went like this.

Me: "Evan, Santa is about to come out, and I don't want you to be afraid of him like last year.  He's a nice man."
Evan: "You mean last year when I was a little kid?"
Me:  "Are you not a little kid anymore?"
Evan: "Nope."
Me: "Oh, okay then."

And he was fine and very happy to sit in Santa's lap.  See?

I guess I should've had this same talk with Lauren, now 2, but I didn't.  She was excited until she actually saw Santa.  Then she wouldn't look at him and cried into my shoulder.  We did get her to actually look at the camera long enough to get a picture.

Bless her heart.  And, I, being the loving mother that I am, laughed.  A lot.  I love pictures like this.  Really and truly, I do.

So, thanks, Laredo Public Library for being so freakin' awesome!  The kids loved it.  Well, sort of.