Bless you, Santa Claus

I'm not gonna lie, I was dreading pictures with Santa this year. Last year was fairly easy, Autumn was 10 months old and didn't have a choice but to sit on my lap, grin and bear it. She was actually really good about it and we walked away with a picture of her smiling ear to ear (I am in the picture with her, she drew the line at sitting with Santa by herself!).

I was positive this year was not going to go as smoothly. We had a trial run last weekend when we took Autumn to a local theme park for their Christmas activities. Having a picture taken with Santa happened to be one of those activities and even with her two cousins sitting with her, Autumn wanted nothing to do with it. She wouldn't look at Santa, she wouldn't talk to Santa and she certainly was not going to smile for a picture.

So, when I decided, in the middle of my work day today, that we were going to head out this evening and make the pilgrimage to our local mall to get that annual snapshot keepsake, I wondered what I was thinking. Nothing about this idea sounded good. Steve and I have both worked all day. We are going to rush home, throw on clothes, dress Autumn in her Christmas outfit and fight mall traffic to get a picture of our daughter's head buried in my arm. Yup, that's exactly what we were going to do.

I had a game plan. I was going to "warm" Autumn up to the idea of sitting with Santa and taking a picture. I figured this would be better than just springing it on her. So, on our ride home I started talking about going to see Santa and talking to Santa. To my surprise she was she into the idea of seeing Santa and talking to him about what she wanted for Christmas (which is, of course, Elmo). Every time I would say, "Do you want to see Santa?" she would say "OK". "Do you want to tell Santa what you want for Christmas" "OK! Elmo". OK, this is going well, I thought. Then, the bottom fell out of my plan. I said, "Do you want to take a picture with Santa and say Cheese!", "No." she replied.

Great.

We were going anyway. At this point I had made up my mind, even if I was going to be "That Mom", with the screaming child in the middle of the mall.

When we walked up to the "Visits with Santa" area, I was happy to see that there were not many people in line. At least my child's impending melt down (and my bad parenting) would not be witnessed by many. I started talking to Autumn about the other children in line and how they were there to see Santa too. She seemed OK, until it was our turn. When I went to take her out of her stroller she immediately started shaking her head "No."

Here we go, I thought.

I got her out of her stroller and her head hit my shoulder like a brick. She had no intention of moving it. I walked her up to Santa and then it happened. The thing that made me feel like the worst parent in. the. world. My baby lifted her head and looked at me, almost in tears, her bottom lip about to hit the floor. I felt awful. Why was I making her go through this for a picture? I am officially the worst mother in the world.

Then, the sweet man dressed up as Santa started talking to Autumn. He told her how pretty she was, what a beautiful dress she had on, what cute red flowers were on her shoes and what a pretty red bow was in her hair. And just like her Mama, flattery will get you everywhere.

Santa had won her over.

Without wasting time, we got into position (Autumn still draws the line at sitting by herself), snapped our picture and headed out. I was one happy Mama. I got my picture and did not permanently scar my daughter too bad in the process.

As we were walking away Autumn said, "Bye, Bye Santa!" Bless you, sweet Santa Claus.