santa

Santa2011 was anticipated by a good little boy who was trading out old photos of himself on Santa's lap in our xmas picture frames and ornaments.  He was giggling about what to tell Santa but wouldn't reveal to me.  We wandered our way above the ice palace over to the elevator and from our angle all you could see was the Ice Princess, a teenaged girl dressed in a furry wedding dress.  Aiden was giggling at how silly he thought that was and kept looking for Santa who was hiding around the corner.  The line up to Santa was nearly empty (go on a Sunday after dinner) but there was all sorts of fun stuff.  The artic winter facts about conservation including animals like beluga whales, baby seals, dolphins, and polar bears.  They had huge snow globes that shimmered, a spot to stand next to tall bears, and even a spot to compare your hand  to a polar bear paw print made out of ice.

Then it was time to enter the dome where they had fake snow falling into the light.  Fail: when it gets in your excited kids eye ;)  Then we rounded the corner to be greeted by the friendly Ice Princess.  Then Aiden skipped over to Santa and hopped up in his lap.  Smiley Keaton was plopped next to him and seemed very interested in Santa's beard.  Santa immediately started making Aiden laugh by asking if he could take KC to the North Pole to be a helper elf.  Then Santa asked what Aiden might like and he hmmed and hawed with his thinking finger tapping his cheek.  Then Santa started to make some guesses: a sandwich?  Giggle, giggle!  a vacuum cleaner?  Gfaw! a barbie doll?  No thanks silly Santa!

I'm not too sure he ever actually told Santa anything that he wanted.  Because then it was time to try to capture a photo.  Aiden had a nice calm smiley face and KC just looked at us wide eyed wondering what the heck was going on although looking comfy on Santa's lap.  Aiden was so excited when Santa presented him with two coloring books, one for him and one for KC.  Then it turned out that our package included photos with the ice princess too, so we hopped back over to say hello to her and hop in her lap.  KC seemed happy to cuddle... although when the camera had trouble and we had to go to round two he wasn't as interested.

It was a really fun swanky Santa visit and I felt like we were in Disney world.  Although I will always have fond memories of santa's arrival at the cruddy MA mall where the animatronic animals clicked a little and the only light show was when the misdirected spot lights shone in your face.  Oh, the questionable Santa had his own charm.  These are fun moments to cherish regardless of how swanky they are.