Santa's Coming to Town

Do YOU see that?! TYLA sitting ON SANTA'S lap?!?! With THE cutest smile EVER!?!?! This is a HUGE deal!!!! She would never EVER even go in the near vicinity of Santa! EVER! If she knew he was there, she would go the opposite way!

Here's what went down...

ALL day long we knew we were meeting Aunt Cassie and her boys Karson and Zacky to go see Santa at Bass Pro Shop (hey, we're not rednecks, they were just doing them for FREE) Aunt Cassie and Uncle Mikey got a pass so we didn't have to wait in line...AT ALL!! Anyway, we talked about it ALL day. I would ask Tyla and Jack what they were going to ask Santa for Christmas. Each time I would get a different answer from Tyla. So we would go over everything she had said before to add to the list. Her and Jack kept asking if Santa was coming to eat cookies. We read ALL kinds of different Christmas books. We talked about how nice he was and how much he loves all of us. On the way to Bass Pro Shop, we reminded them again about how we sit on Santas lap to tell him what we want him to bring us for Christmas.

We get there and Tyla FREAKS! I mean, meltdown! I pick her up and remind her how she just has to tell him what she wants for Christmas and that if she really doesn't wanna go see him, we would just go home. I don't know at what point Jack started having his own meltdown, but all of a sudden Tyla saw him and just snapped out of it! If any of you have ever seen her have one of her meltdowns, she doesn't just "snap out of it"! EVER. But she did. She went over to Jack and told him, "It's ok Jack, Santa's nice" And then she just pranced right up to him and sat on his lap!!

Just. Like. That.

Who woulda thunk it?! Not us, that's for sure! The only reason we were even attempting it was because it was free and we had a pass to the front of the line. We haven't even wanted to try since before Jack was a year old! Lines. LOTS of people. Strange old man dressed funny at the end of the line. NO THANK YOU.

Now, Jack still had a different experience. I had to carry him all the way up (which is why I ended up in the dang pic) and he hid his face in my neck until I told him they were taking a picture so he looked up and said "cheese". At least he looks like he had fun! And as for the deer in the headlights look on Joe...he just cracks us up.

Then we went to the Temple lights (again...another post coming) with our cousins and Nana. We ended the night with hot chocolate at Aunt Heathers while watching Elf. (my kids love that movie, BTW)

It was a VERY fun day!! And one that makes a mama super proud of her hard working kiddos!!

(PS...PLEASE don't pay any attention to my face! I was talking while smiling and obviously didn't expect to be in a picture!!)