Here Comes Santa Clause...

 We decided to take a trip into the city today to check out the mall and pay a visit to Santa. The first mall we hit up had no Santa. The kids were totally disappointed. So we drove to a different mall...only to find out that the wait time was TWO HOURS! There may have been some tears when we decided not to tough it out. The malls were crowded, lunch was insane, we almost lost three of our four children. I chased Joseph down as he weaved in and out of people in the foodcourt looking for me. Thankfully I saw him just as he ran looking or he may have been lost forever! 

On the way home I remembered that Santa visits the Bass Pro shop too! I called and they said the wait time was only 30 minutes. That seemed more doable. With our luck though, Santa took an early dinner break mid afternoon pushing the wait time another hour or so. We had already driven all that way and didn't want to disappoint the kiddos again, so we braced ourselves for the wait. Joe and Daddy walked around the store checking out all the guy stuff. Camilla and Hyrum walked around and did some crafts and Finley and I held our spot in line. 

After what seemed like forever, we finally got our few seconds of fame with Santa. Seeing Joseph's face light up as he ran down the walk towards the jolly old guy was worth it. Camilla couldn't wait to tell him what she wanted, "I would like a snow tiger for Christmas". He took his time and talked to each one. Finley was a champ for his first time on Santa's knee. Just as we were putting on our coats Camilla looked up at me and asked, "Do you think Santa heard what I wanted? I told him a snow tiger, but when he repeated it back to me it sounded like snow TIRE." Mike and I got a good chuckle. We reassured her, but she still worries she's going to get a tire for Christmas this year. 

And as we drove home we decided we were never doing this again...until next year probably.