Balancing Babies, Business, Betterment, and Bacon: We Heart Santa

I love photos with Santa, but only the kind that would make Norman Rockwell roll over in his grave (he is dead, right?). It only took one year of having kids to realize that I would never be the kind of parent who was able to walk away with that Rockwellian Christmas photo, so I embraced it.
The first year Gus was old enough to really have a cute Santa photo was a big deal for me. I made a point to dress him up in his finest holiday sweater-vest and have his picture taken at our annual kids holiday party at the office. One of the employees was known for his realistic, (naturally-bearded) portrayal of Santa. I stood in line waiting for our turn with every intention of expecting that picture-perfect moment between my child, wonder and awe in his eyes, and Santa. It took about one second to realize this wasn't going to happen. So I walked away with a photo of my son, the kid who cried so hard that he was redder than Santa's coat and had a mixture of tears, drool, and snot smeared across his face, and a giggling Santa.
As the years progressed, I sort of made it my goal to walk away with the worst picture with Santa that I could muster. I have actually been pretty lucky. But Gus is older now and the terror of Santa has sort of worn off. But we are lucky enough to have Parker. Parker is almost two. She is what the books and websites refer to as "spirited" so I figured that this Santa thing could go either way. So last night, I packed the kids up and headed out to the mall. We have a really great Santa at our mall, you know, the kind with the REAL beard {my husband (the Bacon) recently regurgitated some statistic relating to the fact that naturally-bearded Santas make more money during the holiday season then their artificially-bearded counterparts}. The kids were particularly well-behaved on this trip. They quietly sat through a cell phone upgrade (a feat in of itself), a healthy food-court dinner, and a quick stop at the jewelry store to have a ring repaired. But then it was time...SANTA! Gus became a little shy as we approached the big guy, but I could tell that he didn't want to miss out on the opportunity to put in his request for Optimus Prime and Bumble Bee. But as luck would have it, I have been blessed with another child, terrified of Santa.

I took this one with my cell phone (good thing I stopped in for that upgrade). You can see the terror on Parker's face at being left with this guy. And Gus, although it is blurry, is holding his sister's hand and looking at Santa as if to say, do you see this, I'm being a good brother.

Below is the gem that was captured by the photographer at the mall and I must say that she has a gift. Parker is at the peak of her shrieks and Gus cannot lean further away. He doesn't want to be associated with the creature who might ruin his chances at scoring Optimus or Bumble Bee. He told us this morning that she embarrassed him in front of Santa—how sweet.