Mara Met Santa!

Tonight we took Mara to the mall to meet Santa! We figured it would be less busy in the middle of the week, and this is the one night that Jay is home when Mara's awake. We headed over around 5pm, but of course Santa was taking a dinner break. So, we wandered around for awhile, and then came back and waited patiently and gave Mara a bottle. Santa came back, jingled some bells, did a little 'ho ho ho' and then we got in line.

I was nervous that we wouldn't get a good picture...a sign said that you could take two pictures on your own camera, so those are the bottom two pictures here. She wasn't being too cooperative at that point, but they're kind of funny! She did have several smiles, but of course the photographer didn't catch those! So she took about 5, and in one Mara was fussing, and a couple she was staring at the camera with a really sober look on her face. We decided that the best one was the one where she was staring at Santa. I thought it was kind of sweet! She was really checking him out, but didn't seem afraid of him. I could tell she was just DYING to pull his beard, but he kept her hands pretty occupied so that she couldn't get to it. I'm sure he's used to that!

Overall I think it went pretty well. At least she didn't scream the whole time! She got a little coloring book from Santa, and then the guy at the counter gave her a little stuffed animal (not part of the package, just because she's so dang cute!) so I thought that was sweet...even if he did say "This matches HIS outfit" when he gave it to her. Oh well, close enough! ;)