Busy, busy, busy.
This morning, my mom got to our house bright and early and we headed to Lenox for our annual visit with Santa and a ride (or 2) on the Pink Pig.
Corey normally sneaks away from work to join us, but he is exceptionally busy right now so he had to skip it this year. Luckily, we made an impromptu visit to Lenox on Sunday and took a preliminary ride on Priscilla's train (and a very unexpected one at that as we didn't know it was even set up and I didn't have my camera!).
We got to the mall right at 10am to continue our tradition of not ever having to wait in line to sit on Santa's lap. Mission accomplished; however, Santa didn't arrive from the North Pole until 11am.
So we headed over to the Pink Pig where we also didn't have to wait in any sort of line whatsoever. It was awesome. As a bonus, tickets were buy-one-get-one so we got to take an extra spin around the track for free. Bonnie and Grace L-O-V-E-D it. Especially the Bon, whose ride on the Pig today was her first one (sort of).
After our ride, it was just about 11 o'clock so we walked back over to see what was up with Santa.
As it turned out, we were his first customers of the day. Grace walked right up to him and said, "Hi, Santa. I've been a very good girl."
Hmmm...
We were so early, in fact, that the "photographer" was still working out some of the kinks with his camera so Santa got to spend an extra long time listening to Grace's extra long Christmas list.
Of course, she pointed out his bejeweled coat again this year, and she also came bearing some bling of her own to show Santa in the form of gigantic plastic jewel rings.
Much to my surprise and delight, Bonnie did great. I was all prepared to make an appearance in this year's photo, but my little Choppers (that's what we call her on account of she only has 6 teeth and is nearly 15 months old) was just as excited to see him as her big sister was.
She just wasn't interested in sitting on his lap for very long.
All of the above pictures are courtesy of my mom. In order for her to be able to take her own pictures, however, we had to buy the "professional" one, as well.
This was the final verdict...
and it is my absolute favorite Santa picture to date.
