In the end, he always wins them all over

In the festive mood yet? Only 8 more days until Christmas and no that doesn't mean you should wait 7 days until finishing your shopping list. Get those trees up and decorated, get the gifts purchased and wrapped, and enjoy the count down. Santa Claus is coming to town!!

I still have some wrapping left to do myself, but if you saw the mountain of gifts already wrapped, you would never guess that there are more to come. My house is like the North Pole. Gifts come from miles around to be prepped at my house for the big day. Not because I'm a world class present wrapper or anything, but because I know what everyone wants for Christmas and I coordinate to try to make sure they get it. I find the best deals so everyone can get the best bang for their buck. And not to be forgotten, I host the big gift giving event at my house (and all that other fun Christmas stuff), which means everyone's gifts need to be present and accounted for. This is why I need an entire room in my house designated just for holding these gifts until Christmas Eve when Santa will oh so nicely re-deliver them and place them under our Christmas Tree. Thank you Santa! (I'll be sleeping)

And speaking of Santa, this year we had quite the turn of events. I attempted to have the girls sit on Santa's lap no less than THREE times this year. The first time we looked from afar. CC was very excited, but the mention of actually getting close enough to sit on his lap totally freaked her out. This has been her typical behavior for the last two years or three years, uumm, well, for her whole life. I didn't make her get any closer to Santa since she didn't want to. She did want to stand there all day though, far enough back where the gate and all of the Christmas decorations were in between her and this dude that everyone says is so awesome (but she has yet to see any actual proof of it), and close enough to watch him (just in case Mommy and Daddy were right about him). The second attempt at sitting on Santa's lap this year was pretty similiar to the first.

So, when we went to "breakfast with Santa" in our neighborhood this morning, I did not have high expectations. We got there for story time which took place before Santa arrived. We had our breakfast and just hung out. I strategically picked chairs that would be located as close to Santa's chair as possible, with a direct view. When Santa came in, Christina seemed pretty excited and Gwen didn't seem to care one way or the other. All of the other children lined up to sit on Santa's lap. We just sat and watched. Christina was very relaxed and happy. She liked seeing all of the boys and girls tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas. She was also intrigued by the candy cane they all got when they were finished.

About a half hour later I asked her if she wanted to get on line to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what she wanted for Christmas. She chimed in "and to get a candy cane?". We were in. She was convinced . . . but I wasn't. I figured she would freak once it was our turn. We waited about ten minutes and then . . . .

SUCCESS!!!

Christina actually jumped on Santa's lap with no problem at all! She had a smile from ear to ear the entire time. It was Gwen that totally freaked!! Yet, Gwen freaking out didn't even bother Christina. She told him what she wanted for Christmas and she got her candy cane. I managed to stand next to Santa while holding Gwen so at least we could sort of get a picture. Gwen was super tired and rubbing her eyes though, so it wasn't the best picture.