SANTA CLAUS IS COMIN' TO TOWN

Dadda's office hosted a family night that brought Santa to town. This was going to be Evie's second attempt to see Santa.

To make a long story short, we did see Santa, but it was from a very far (and safe) distance.  But we had a few legitimate excuses for not getting a picture with him:

(1) The place was PACKED. At least 100 families - with kids in tow- were there. And that's by the time the Yankee & Peach family got to the festivities well over an hour late!  Needless to say, the line for Santa was entirely too long for a squirming toddler to sit/stand and wait for him.

(2) We were pretty sure the visit with Santa was not going to go well. Evie enjoys characters from a distance, but when they get all up-close-and-personal with her, the claws come out on our little 14-month-old tigress. She doesn't want them anywhere near her, much less trying to hold her!

Rudolph was the first to slightly freak her out.
Please notice the death grip on Dadda's sweater.
In Evie's defense, Rudolph was a little weird looking. When Momma Peach first saw him, she thought it was a chipmunk with a red nose, until we noticed the antlers.

But then a friendly (?) moose snuck up behind her for a picture...

.... which we are almost certain caused Evie to have a dirty diaper.
Thanks for scaring the poop out of our kid, Marty Moose! (on second glance at the Moose Picture we noticed the fellow's eyes were visible from inside the mask. Kind of a double creepy moment?)

For the rest of the night, she kept a watchful eye over her shoulder.
No tricky moose was going to sneak up on her again!

So we went and left messages at Chris's coworkers desks instead.
Backstory: This is Shannon's work area. Shannon has been asking to see Evie, but somehow is never around when Evie makes her visits to Dadda's workplace.
So, we decided to let Shannon know we really were there! Hi Shannon!

We're hoping that the third time will be the charm in visiting Santa.  The Bass Pro Shop near us is supposed to have a good Santa and they have free photographs with him.  (yeah for free stuff!)

If Evie doesn't want to have anything to do with the next Santa, then we're just going to dress Dadda up as Santa, pop some reindeer antlers on the dogs, then bribe Evie with a candy cane, Dadda with a beer (or two), and the dogs with some treats and that will make for a fantastic Santa photograph, right?

I'm thinking 2011 will be the year for the Santa picture.