Santa Claus or Bust.

Uh, that'll be a bust, thank you very much.

 

You know how you have these visions in your head about how cute your kids are going to look in their fancy Christmas clothes.  And they're going to smile for you when take a picture.  Like a real smile, not a "I'm 'cheesing' so hard you can't even see my eyes" smile and not a "I'm so sick of saying cheese that I'll just bug my eyes out of my head and show all my teeth in a bear like fashion" sort of smile.  And they're going to put their arms around each other and maybe even kiss each other's cheeks.  And you're going to go see Santa and they're going to sit on his lap and smile so you can take a picture.  You know those visions?  I have those visions.  And they are just that, visions.

 This is how it actually goes.

 I'm rushing around getting the kids dressed while Joel is scraping the ice and snow off the cars and driveway.  Lily's outfit was a tiny bit big, but it's ok.  I realized I had no dress shoes for her, so cowgirl boots it is.  Except today, she didn't want to wear boots, she wanted to wear light up princess tennis shoes (never fails, if I want her to wear something, she ain't havin' it).  I finally convince her on the boots.  Hallelujah!  It's a miracle.

Tyler's outfit.... well the shirt, vest and tie fit but the pants were like 14 sizes too big.  So, Wranglers it is.

Now that I've gotten the kids dressed and I'm sweating like a pig, I wanted to snap a few pictures in front of the tree while the kiddos were all dressed up.  Simple thing, right?

Tyler's not really in to it.  I tried about 7 times to turn him around to face me instead of the tree.

 

 

I get him turned around and I take a giant leap backwards so I can hurry and take a picture before he runs away.

Lily's all in to the sibling love pose, but Tyler's pretty pissed about the whole thing.

 

And then Lily pretty well loses her patience with the situation and Tyler's flat out cussing me and his sister (I'm pretty sure, though the exact words aren't very clear).

 

Remember that bear like baring of teeth.... yep, got that shot.  Check!

 

How about we try standing up?

 

Nope.  How about not?

 

And, the only good shot of the day.  My beautiful girl.  Smiling like a champ.  Thank you Liliana for giving me the pleasure of a decent picture!! 

 

And then we're off to see Santa.  And let me just say that Lily asks ALL THE TIME to see Santa.  She points him out everywhere we go.  If it's mentioned on the radio, she's like "He said Santa!"  I've been talking to her all week about telling Santa what she wants for Christmas and she was going to tell him Doc McStuffins.  I really thought I might have had her prepared. 

 

This is as close as she willingly got to the man.

 

Here's where one of Santa's Helpers tried to help me get Lily on Santa's lap.  Now Lily's freaking because there are TWO strangers involved in this.  Santa and his helper. 

 

Notice how her legs are WRAPPED AROUND MINE and she is biting her lip in determination.  She IS NOT going.  Santa be damned!  You can keep your presents!

 

So I told her to just stand in front of Santa.  "You don't even have to look at him."  Even that didn't really go over well.

 

Next up.  Tyler.  Who has already been having a really good picture day.

 

Tyler has the unfortunate size disadvantage that his sister doesn't have.  He's too little to hang on quite as tightly as Lily, so he got handed over.

 

Poor Santa.  Ok, poor Tyler too.

You know, I haven't had my picture taken with Santa in a really long time.  Glad we could get that done.