Santa Baby

This afternoon we paid Santa a visit and surprisingly, it was a smashing success. Yesterday Santa showed up at our church Christmas party. Little Sister wanted nothing to do with him despite the fact that he was passing out gifts. Tears and hysterics were involved. So this morning at breakfast after it was decided that we'd be heading to the mall after the Girl got out of school for the obligatory Santa photo, J started preparing Little Sister for the event (I thought that we should keep her in the dark so as not to induce panic all morning.). His reasoning was that she hadn't liked Santa the day before because she hadn't been mentally prepared to see him. All morning long they talked about Santa and how he brought good girls and boys presents for Christmas. Then he'd prompt Little Sister, "What are you going to ask Santa Clause for Christmas?" She'd reply every time with the same answer, "A ballet dress?!" in a questioning tone. The time came, the line was fairly short and for the most part Little Sister was distracted by the goings-on around us - the shoppers strolling by, the teenage girls in line in front of us, the wacky mirror at the front of the line. When it was our turn, Little Sister nervously trailed the Girl over to Santa where she allowed Santa to show her where to stand and then smiled at the photographer's direction. After the pictures were taken she even told Santa Clauses (what she calls him) what she wanted, "A ballet dress and a candy cane!" I think Santa can manage that, as for the Girl, she requested a...video camera and a projector. What?! What about the ladybug pillow pet that she incessantly talked about prior to Thanksgiving?