Santa is fun!

So, amidst all the health fun in my family, I have been trying to enjoy Christmas time with Munchi as much as possible. He is at the age where he does not understand everything, but a lot of things are really exciting. One of those things being Santa. He loves him! We talk about him all the time, and love looking at pictures of him. We read books about him and about baby Jesus. He has a baby doll whose name goes between Santa and Baby Jesus on a regular basis. Though the love is true, he has never wanted to go see Santa up close by himself. After Thanksgiving we saw him once and he would only go near him if Daddy came to (see post below about boredom = family time). Anyway, I have taken him to the mall with me several times this holiday season, and all he is willing to do is admire his Santa from afar, then talk about him the whole way home.

So last week during the torrential rain, Munchi was going stir crazy, so I packed him up early one morning and took him to the mall just as it was opening. We finished our shopping, and as we were leaving I noticed Santa had arrived. As usual, I took him to admire him from afar. But the mall was deserted, and Santa was bored. So he started talking to Munchi, offering him a candy cane, a stuffed penguin, anything to get him to come over to say hi. Eventually, the were engaged in a game of catch with the penguin, but we could still not convince him to sit in his lap, or even come close enough to hand him back the penguin. So, we left to get a pretzel at a near by stand. We were sitting at the table having our snack, when who came and sat at the table next to us? SANTA! Munchi almost jumped out of his skin with excitement. Within the next ten minutes, Munchi was sitting in Santa's lap at the table, sharing his pretzel with him! And no, I have no pictures to prove it, because he was a professional Santa and they did not allow any personal pictures to be taken :( Anyway, Santa had to go, because other kids had showed up for pictures. When the line subsided again, I took Munchi back over to visit. And this time he JUMPED into Santa's lap! Santa read him the Night Before Christmas and they played with the penguin some more, which Munchi got to bring home with him.
Here is the only picture taken of the whole event, showing Munchi having the time of his life. I really will never forget it!