Santa Claus is coming to town...

I've been sooooo excited about getting Chloe to Santa for her 1st Christmas Santa picture. Chris and I have several ideas of Christmas traditions we'd like to have in our family but most of them will be more special once our kids are a bit older and when we celebrate Christmas in our own home. So I wanted to be sure we had a few that we could also do on the years we traveled. Of course picture with Santa was on the top of my list.

We tried multiple times to hit the mall Santa. My Grandpa loved the mall at Christmas time so it seemed the natural place to start the tradition. However, several failed attempts (line too long, Santa going on break, forgot the camera) we finally realized that even if we successfully made it to the front of the line, we'd have to pay $20 to take pictures. We decided it wasn't worth it since we didn't even know if our Cupcake would like the jolly old soul. I was so disappointed. Between not having our Christmas pictures made for the Christmas cards and not getting to see Santa I was beginning to loose Christmas cheer.

Then Chris got smart and looked online for free Santas and found out that there'd be a Santa visit at our farmers market. Since it was "free" I told myself he'd probably be in cheap velour, Walmart's own brand of cowboy boots, and would probably have the cheap fake white beards. I decided if he was even a step up from the Walmart vision I was imagining then I could be excited and Christmas cheer would be alive again :) ha. But, if he was just a Walmart Santa....at least we'd have our Santa picture. So we packed up and headed out to the farmers market to meet our friends, James, Kristi, and Joshua...and of course Jolly Old St. Nick.

What a surprise he was....He was from Australia and great with the kids....of course, since he's Santa, right?! Needless to say I was THRILLED. In fact, it'll be hard to top these Santa pictures, ever.

Have I mentioned our Christmas cards are late, late, late? They're still coming but it will be January. I'm signing off until probably after the New Year. I've been so anxious for Chloe 1st Christmas that I'm leaving the internet aside for the next week or so in order to fully experience it with our cupcake! So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!