Santa Fears

Last year, we waited for 2 hours to visit Santa at Santa's Lane (aka Nordstrom in downtown Seattle). It was Dylan's first Christmas, so we wanted only the best and faithfully stood in line. I guess it was all about the "experience"...painful as it may have been for us. Dylan slept through it and awoke just in time to see jolly St. Nick. While there wasn't many smiles, there wasn't any crying. Success! Here's a few from our camera, not the professional's...

It just wasn't in our cards to visit Santa today. I had hoped to return to Nordstrom again this year. Unfortunately we weren't guaranteed to get in before store closing, so we defected and went to see Macy's Santa. It was a no-frills experience to say the least...but hey, no lines!

Over the last week, we'd been asking Dylan if he wanted to see Santa while showing him last year's picture. He acknowledge his interest each time and tried saying "Santa" (which sounds more like "tan-ta"). I just assumed he'd be intrigued to see the real thing. Not quite.

Looking on from a distance at Macy's, Dylan appeared interested. The closer we got, the more unsettled he became. As I tried placing him on Santa's lap, the screaming, panic, and non-stop "no's" began. We tried everything...Elmo puppet, candy cane, bells. Forget sitting, maybe standing near Santa would work? Nope. Poor thing, he didn't want to have anything to do with the white beared gentleman. Ok sure, Santa did look a little scary :(. During the commotion, I wasn't sure whether Dylan or Santa was more uncomfortable. I'm sure Santa is accustomed to screaming children, right?

We're going to attempt a photo re-do. This time, Devin will do the honors of quickly getting Dylan as close as possible to Santa. I'm sure that it will involve a symphony of crying and tears again. Stay tuned for a future blog installment to hear how it goes.

In the meantime, here's a couple snapshots of Dylan enjoying everything that isn't Santa.