Santa 2013

This is my favorite time of year, and every year, with these two kids, this season continues to be more and more magical and joyful for me.

December has already been a whirlwind month filled with Christmas parties, major SNOW!!!, the decorating of trees, gingerbread houses, and cookies, holiday crafts, tons of carol singing, and as of today, our visit to Santa.

Highlights of this year's Santa visit:

1.  waiting outside Santa's house in 10 degree weather (seemed balmy compared to yesterday's 2 degrees)
2.  Sophie's hyper excitement all day long leading up to the visit
3.  Santa's emergence around a corner causing both children to become stone silent but for different reasons...
4.  Sophie's silence because she was face to face with the most magical man in the world...she was starstruck
5.  Cameron's (initial) silence because he most likely did not realize that Santa ("o o o") was actually real
6.  the insistence that Rudolph, Sophie's stuffed animal, join us to visit Santa
7.  Cameron's pitiful crying, repeated pleas of "all done" and "bye, bye bye", and his somewhat violent attempts to open Santa's door to escape before he ultimately threw his body down on the ground for a good, old-fashioned meltdown
8.  Sophie's conversation with Santa that included "Is Cameron on the naughty or nice list?"
9.  Santa's accessory of a large, wooden cross around his neck to remind us all of the true reason for the magic and belief of Christmas

And this was the photo that resulted:

There is nothing quite like the sweet and genuine joy of a child this season.

(And to his credit, Cameron appreciates the magic of this season, too, in his own 18-month old way. He doesn't walk by a Santa/Father Christmas decoration in the house without saying "O-O-O" and he appreciates the lights on our tree and home-- "woowww"-- and he loves the white blanket of snow outside-- pointing and yelling "no! no!")