Let the Shopping Begin

We did some Christmas shopping last weekend, which quite frankly, seems like a really long time ago! Van, Holly, & I met up with my parents to do our shopping marathon, which we do every year. Usually, I get all my shopping done for everyone in those two days. Welcome to parenthood - I still have about half of my shopping to do, and I'm running out of time!

Last year, we went to visit Santa (a super great Santa, not some hokey one who doesn't even look like the real guy!) and I decided to go back to the same place again. I spent weeks looking for a new Christmas dress for Holly and finally found one the day before we went for pictures.

Just as we were walking up to Santa's place in front of the tree, one of his elves told us that he was going on a one hour break! I know that even Santa needs a break from sitting in a chair and smiling, but it was a little inconvenient. I was pretty sure that Holly was almost at meltdown stage, since she had hardly napped all day because we were shopping.

Since we had some time to kill, we went in to Whiz Kids, a great toy & educational store for kids...like Holly and my dad. ;-) She had a fun time playing with the train set and eventually found the cars that you press down, roll backward, let go, and they ZOOM down the aisles. Holly entertained everyone by crawling around on the floor in her (cringe!) cream colored dress playing with the cars. I have to give Whiz Kids a 2 thumbs up for cleanliness, because Holly was as clean when we left as she was when we went into the store.

We got back to Santa's place a little early to get in line. Holly loved looking at the Christmas tree and kept telling us that it was "UP!" pointing way up to the top of the tree, which was about 3 stories high. She wanted to touch that tree soooo bad! She kept climbing onto the rails and could have fallen over the top if I hadn't been paying any attention. Here she is checking out some kids in front of her going up to see Santa.

We practiced smiling while we were standing in line. I'd say "smile" or "say cheese" and she would smile her biggest smile at me, then giggle at how fun that was. But just like last year, we got her up to Santa's lap and there were no smiles to be found! Holly was so solemn, even after being given a candy cane. That's ok though, because she is still so cute and beautiful that a smile isn't necessary. Besides, it will be great to tell her as she gets older how she never smiled for Santa when she was little. Just as we were getting finished up there, a brass ensemble came into the mall and set up to play some Christmas carols. We went over to listen for a few minutes, and Holly got out in the middle of the floor and just danced away. It was really comical because the musicians were playing some slow, not-so-super-cheery Christmas songs, but you would never know that by looking at Holly! We kept waiting for a faster, peppy, happy song, but that never happened, so we finally left.
This was BY FAR the most adorable shot of the day! Still no smile, but oh so cute! It reminds me of the "I look like an angel, but I've got a little devil in me somewhere" kind of picture.

Now I just need to find some time to finish up my Christmas shopping. I'm glad that Christmas is on a Thursday because I'm going to be one of those last minute shoppers that I have always made fun of. That's the Christmas spirit, eh?