Hello, Santa!

In honor of the official arrival of December and Christmas just around the corner, I'm posting this year's Santa picture.  We actually took it before Thanksgiving in order to avoid long lines and grumpy, impatient children but I wanted to save it until the Christmas season was upon us.  As you can probably guess from my presence in this year's photo, Nicholas was not keen on sitting next to old St. Nick by himself.  They had a little chit chat at first, which went great, but as soon as Santa asked if he could take a picture with him the crying and white-knuckled grasps of Mommy's shirt were in full swing.  He's just a lot more aware of his fear nowadays as he becomes more perceptive of the great big world around him.  But seriously, who cares?  It may not be the way I wanted it but it's the way it turned out.  And I'm sure I'll look back at this picture in 20 years with mushy sentiments about my baby growing into a little boy.  But there's no need to worry because after he sees what Santa's bringing him for Christmas, he's going to want to see Santa every single day of his life.  This one is gonna be a goodie, folks.  Stay tuned......24 days and counting!