a santa FAIL

i try so very hard to give my kids all the necessary experiences that i can. start and keep traditions, all those type things. good mom stuff. 

soooooo. at the beginning of december, i grabbed joe and the kids, and we headed to the outdoor mall where "the best santa" was supposed to be. he wasnt there. no signs saying when he would be back, schedule, nada. claire was devastated. i didnt want to go to the regular indoor malls- they all charge for pictures now, and dang it i didnt want to pay to capture my kids screaming with a fat bearded man in a red suit. (they are EXPENSIVE too.) 

perhaps maybe the ward party..... oh wait. no chance there. no santa at our ward ever again..... 

so we waited, figuring maybe we were too early in the season. it was a at least a week after thanksgiving, but whatever. as usual, december was hectic, and we didnt make it back to that outdoor mall until christmas eve. no santa. claire was disappointed again, but at least there were signs saying he would be there at 6:00 THAT NIGHT, along with free carriage rides. (oh carriage rides....another story. another day.) so i convinced lindsay to come with me since joe was working, we were there just after 6, and NO FLIPPING SANTA. nowhere to be found. and no carriage rides. even his chair was gone. we werent the only ones walking around in the freeeeeezing weather, wondering where the heck he was. so lame.

three times we tried to see santa. and three times, we failed. miserably. they didnt even see him, let alone get their pictures with them. no idea if claire would have been happy or sad, if caleb would have sat down, anything.

when its all said and done, the kids enjoyed running around his "house" and i got to enjoy looking at everyone else's screaming kids on facebook and blogs. i think that there was not one picture of kids with santa that didnt have them upset or looking realllllly confused. 

next year kids, we WILL get that screaming picture. hopefully :)