A Visit To Santa

For the past several weeks, toy catalogs have been coming in the mail to the house. The boys get so excited about them and read them from cover to cover. At nearly every toy, either Simi or Asher exclaims, "Can we buy this toy?" The canned response is, "You can ask Santa for it."

So now, with Santa's visit nearly here, I asked Simi and Asher to make a list of the things they want, so that they can visit Santa and tell him personally. They both sat down with pencil and paper and make a list: trains, race track, race cars, Ramone (from the Cars movie), and many other types of race cars. Cars, cars, and more cars. (Those folks at Pixar know what boys like.) Simi wrote down all the words and letters. Asher did too, in three-year-old style. Then, we took those lists and headed down to the mall to visit Santa and deliver the lists.

Asher has always been afraid of Santa Claus. In fact, he's afraid of sports mascots and other huge fake animals. I was hoping with the hype of toys and stuff that he'd overcome his fear enough to be able to sit on Santa's lap for a photograph. He did, but it was a really hard for him. I am really proud of him that he managed to overcome his fear enough to sit near Santa. He BARELY sat near him, though, and leaned SOOO far away from Santa - with a great big frown on his face.

Leila, who has the normal 10-month-old stranger anxiety, did GREAT! She let Santa hold her and smiled and laughed. She's the one who looks the happiest in the photo. Simi was the first to go up to Santa, list in hand, and spoke to Santa about what he wants for Christmas. It was adorably cute.

Now we need to find the stuff on their lists.