Andrew & Santa 2011

The week before Christmas was a whirlwind of activity.  In an effort to fit it all in, Jeff & I ran over to our local Bass Pro Shop to visit Santa's Wonderland early that Monday morning.  {Note to self: Visit Santa earlier in December & not the first full day of Christmas Break for the local schools}  I had a feeling that this would be the year that we had a screaming Santa photo & as you can tell from the photo above, I was correct.  I can't help but laugh every time I see this photo. Priceless memories!`

One of the reasons we love visiting Santa at The Bass Pro Wonderland is they provide a lot of fun while you wait in the virtual line.  I couldn't wait to get Andrew on the carousel...he wasn't impressed.

He preferred driving a boat over riding a reindeer.

And when our turn came to stand in line, Jeff took Andrew to color a few pictures.

I told Jeff to snap a few "behind the scenes" photos of Andrew & Santa's picture.  I died laughing when I saw this picture of Andrew crying while I made a run for it.  I was telling the photographer to not worry about getting him to stop crying--this was just the picture I wanted & expected.

And a sweet conversation with Santa that I want to document for memory's sake.

"Santa, does him crying like this put him on the naughty list?

"No, he's too cute to be on the naughty list!"

"Well, he knows how to say "Ho, Ho, Ho".  Andrew, what does Santa say?"

Andrew says very loud, "Ho, Ho, Ho!" to which Santa replies, "Ho, Ho, Ho! Merry Christmas!"