Red Balls for Christmas

This is a post about visiting Santa. And yet - there are no pictures of Johnathan and Santa. That should tell you a lot....

Johnathan has been changing his mind quite a bit on what the big guy is bringing so Ben and I decided we better get the kiddo to Santa stat! Because, as we told him, once you tell Santa - you can't change your mind.

He was psyched for the visit. Talked all day. Looked at last year's picture on the mantel. Told us he'd dreamed about what he was going to tell him. We get to the outdoor shopping center which touted a Santa's workshop, Polar Express Train, and snow!

The Polar Express Train was nothing more than people freezing to death on the back of not much more than a tractor with two little towing cars behind him riding through the parking lot. J didn't even see it it was so small. We didn't point it out.

Santa's Workshop was an empty storefront with the big man at the back. Santa in a chair with a lot of lights around him. J freaked. He hid behind Matthew's stroller. Great big brother - hide behind the little one. Finally got him up to Santa and he choked. When asked what he wanted, he looked around and said the first thing that he saw - balls. I want red balls for the Christmas tree.
16 picture attempts later (there was no one else there) and we left without a single shot - it was that bad. It wasn't even a "funny" bad shot. Just plain bad.

So then off to the "snow". That was nothing more than 1 pathetic soap sud machine in front of the theater. But Johnathan thought he was in a blizzard and the night was redeemed. He ran around screaming and dancing that it was snowing. But we had to keep repeating - don't catch them on your tongue. We didn't have the heart to tell him that it was soap and he didn't question why it was only snowing in a 10 foot area.