The deed is done

Earlier today I realized that tonight is my last free night until Sunday. I still have a L O N G list of stuff to get done before the 25th. I had planned to go to Target to pick up some stocking stuffers, but I had a better idea....Go see Santa and see if we can use the pic for our Christmas cards.

So at 8:15 pm I get the kids out of their P.J.s and into the car (you know this is helping my husband build the insanity case against me!). I call the Santa booth at the mall to find out when they close (9pm) and when the line is shut down (9pm). I figure by the time I get there, I'll have 15 minutes before the line closes. My kids were so unprepared for this venture that their minds went blank about their wish lists. Luckily their amnesia turned out to be temporarily because by the time we got to the mall, they were ready. We got to the Santa booth at 8:45 pm and the line was closed. The pissy, teenage girl informed me of this after we had been standing there for a couple of minutes. I protested and argued that I had spoken with someone at the booth that informed me that the line would be open until 9pm. Pissy teenage girl gave me a look that said, "I don't give a sh*t". I asked to speak with the manager offering to show them my call registry to prove I had just been on the phone with them 10 minutes before...The manager didn't come over and talk to me, but allowed us to stay in line...My poor kids having to live with such an unorganized Mom!!

Now call me sick, but I was hoping that Jackson would go ballistic on Santa's lap which would make a hilarious Christmas picture like this one; too bad Mommy procrastinated last year and couldn't use it (it was taken 12/24!).

As we were waiting for our turn, Mr. Jack seemed pretty comfortable staring down the "old man" and even started laughing when the baby in front of him started screaming. Then we were "up", I had already prepared the staff that I was going to let the girls talk to Santa and then I would put Jackson on at the last minute for the piece de resistance. Jack, however, allowed me to place him on Santa's lap without so much as a peep! In fact, Jack went into "silent ninja mode" where he sat really stiff and didn't turn his head or make a expression; almost like he was thinking, "If I don't move, he will think I'm invisible". So the picture is still funny (I'm twisted; I know this), but not hilarious: