HO HO HO

Roy and I took Sam and Ben to the mall today to visit Santa. Roy wisely suggested we arrive at 10am -- the exact time Santa arrives -- to avoid having to wait in line. We got to "The Polar Express Snowglobe" (what happened to Santa's Village??) right at 10, and there was one family in line in front of us -- but we still had to wait about 20 minutes! One of Santa's "merry elves" informed us that another elf called in sick today -- creating some confusion about how things should run.

Anyway, Sam was very excited to be surrounded by the Christmas trees and other props, and laughed and coughed to get the attention of the people around us. Poor Ben is fighting some sort of GI virus (ugh, the diapers!) and was a little quiet and stayed snuggled with Roy for most of the wait. When we FINALLY got to go into the "snowglobe," we were misted with "snow flakes" -- which were actually just styrofoam particles that suck in our hair and in the babies' eyelashes. Sam was fascinated by the snow, but I worried about the chemicals I was sure were in the snow!

The babies were not at all afraid of Santa -- Sam seemed interested in touching his face, and Ben seemed indifferent to the whole experience! And yes, I was one of THOSE moms -- we bought a picture from them (they practically make you) -- but it's only ONE pose. Total sham. So -- I whipped out my digital camera and started snapping pictures. I'm sure it's against the rules -- but whatever, I'm a rebel like that. And, of course, the pictures that I took came out much better than the photo we paid for!