Santa's house... I mean workshop.

Since daycare's Christmas program was cancelled on Friday, I thought the opportunity might be good for a visit to Santa's house.... or as Daddy has called it, his workshop. (Momma and daddy really need to stick together on those kinds of things.) Anyway, this was no simple feat...

To digress... Emily has a memory. I know she gets it from me, but I'm constantly surprised that at such a young age, she doesn't forget much... if anything. For example, she's terribly afraid of the hand dryers in public restrooms. If we have to use one in public, EVERY TIME as we walk through the door, she'll say "I don't like the dryer"... whether she knows there's a dryer in there or not. And she'll continue to say it the whole time we're in there... did I mention that this happens EVERY TIME. So, obviously she's got a compulsive side, (gosh, does she get that from Momma too?)

SO, now we're to "I don't like Santa." "I don't like Santa." "I don't like Santa." It's really quite heartbraking. It started last year. Really, he is a scary sort of fellow, big and jolly and covered w/ all that hair... I know I was scared of him when I was little. BUT, we just brushed it off, (the compulsive hand-dryer thing hadn't started yet.) This year, she started again w/ the "I don't like Santa", and I had memories of EVERY TIME we go to a public restroom.... (seriously, I can not stress EVERY TIME enough.) It just made me realize that we couldn't brush the "I don't like Santa" off like we did last year....

SO, we started w/ things like "Emily, that's not nice to say. We don't say we don't like someone. That hurts Santa's feelings." Nope. Nothing. "I don't like Santa."

Then we tried tackling why she might be scared of him..."Why don't you like him, are you scared of him? Momma and Daddy will keep you safe." She'd say "No. I just don't like Santa."

OK, great. I'm getting frustrated. This had been going on for over a month, and I know Santa has plans. Santa has gifts to bring and cookies to eat, and how will he know what gifts to bring Emily?

Ah-ha. Right, how will he know what gifts to bring... so then we try "Emily, if you don't like Santa, he won't bring you any presents under the tree." Nothing. "I dont' like Santa."

Then it's time to put up the tree, and I say, "Emily, there's no sense in putting up the Christmas tree if Santa is not going to come and bring you presents." to which I get..."well Santa will bring you and Daddy and Zachary presents." Did I mention this was not according to my plan, (hmmm, talk about compulsive.)

By this time, I just wanted her to stop saying she didn't like him. It's ok to be scared, it's ok to not see him, but really, she's got to SOMEHOW let him know what she wants for Christmas. Cousin Jen had a good idea... Danielle was scared of Santa and she just whispered her wants to him across the mall, and he heard her!!! Great, of course! If Santa knows when you're bad and good, he certainly can hear a whisper across a room.... I asked Emily if she wanted to do that, "No, I don't like Santa."

OK, how 'bout we write a letter, to Santa, to Mrs. Claus, Rudolph, the elves, ANYONE? "No, I don't like Santa."

I had run out of ideas. To heck with it. We're just going to Santa's house. We took advantage of the cancelled Christmas program last Friday, and the early Christmas season and headed out to be at Santa's door when he opened at 6pm sharp. (In previous years, waiting until later in December has caused Momma to spend well over an hour in line.) Emily was told that she could just peek in the window first, and if she didn't want to go in, Daddy would take her to the car. Now, of course you all must know that Santa's house is AWESOME! It's cathedral ceilings are filled from floor to roof with trains, flying toys, elves working, life size nutcrackers, lights, spinning things, candy, well...everything Santa's house should be. So momma knew that Emily would look inside and want to see some more.

Sure enough, we got there and it was the perfect time.! There was no one there. Momma, daddy, Emily and Zachary had all of Santa's house to ourselves... well, besides Santa, Mrs. Claus and a couple elves who were there to help. We got a great big Hello and "HO HO HO" from Santa right away, and Emily was pretty freaked out. Zachary was pretty oblivious to the Big Man and just wanted to look at the trains, and flashing lights, and flying things. Emily, stayed pretty close. We rested at one of the train stops... (it's the North Pole village from Rudolph behind the window.)

Santa and Mrs. Claus let us walk around, (NO ONE else was there.) Emily and Momma stopped at a traditional spot... the nutcracker...
And for a quick flashback... the 2003 nutcracker pose...and the 2004 nutcracker pose... (2005 was spent at the North Pole in Chesaning, so we didn't visit the nutcracker.)While we were walking around, Santa moseyed from his chair over to his sleigh. He had a seat and just watched the kids for a while, hoping that they'd take to him and join him in the sleigh. (He was a great Santa.) While Emily had stopped saying "I don't like Santa", he still was way to close for her comfort level, so she wanted nothing to do w/ this. He even offered to go stand by the nutcrackers (several feet away) if she wanted to sit in the sleigh. Nope. So Daddy tried w/ Zachary....OK, that didn't work either.

SO, Santa (who was great) knew enough to let the children be, and he went back to his chair. We walked around some more, sat and looked at all the lights and calmed down. Started a nutcracker tradition w/ Daddy and Zachary...

And then we tried once more w/ the sleigh. Daddy took Zachary on his lap. Great, that was ok. I coaxed Emily onto Daddy's lap too... woo hoo. We were makng progress. Mrs. Claus was watching and offered for me to join the family for a picture... and VOILA!Holy cow, I came w/ the hopes of just getting Emily in the door, and I'm leaving w/ a great family photo. It gets better... Santa (who was just the best Santa) was watching all this unfold, and like the Night Before Christmas, he appeared behind me. Mrs. Claus snapped one more picture and he was gone, before Emily even knew what was going on. I was ecstatic! That picture may just make our Christmas cards this year, so we'll save it for now.

My visit was just about complete...and perfect, but Santa still didnt' know what Emily wanted for Christmas. People were starting to filter in by now, so we were losing our personal space... I told Emily it was time to go, did she want to tell Santa what she wanted. "No." Do you want to tell Mrs. Claus? "No." Do you want me to tell Santa? "No." Do you want me to tell Mrs. Claus? "Yes." OHMIGOSH. Did she say YES? So, she said she wanted a Christmas dolly, jingle bells and a train for Zachary. And she watched as I went to tell Mrs. Claus and asked her to share the message.

PHEW. My job was done, Christmas can now proceed. The last 6 weeks of "I don't like Santa" has finally turned out ok. We thanked Santa and Mrs. Claus and I think I floated out of Santa's house...

We stopped by the igloo on the way out: Daddy and Emily... (I'm thinking she has Daddy's smile, but we're thinking Aunt Tamara's eyes)And then Momma, Emily and Zachary...And then Daddy the photog wanted to get the view of the igloo... (I am not dropping Zachary, just trying to peak out the hole.)And he couldn't resist one more of the igloo...I was happy the whole way home... even when Emily asked "where was Santa's bed", which is when Daddy said, "well, that wasn't really Santa's house, that was his workshop." What? No, it's Santa's house... of course we couldn't see his bed, we were in his living room.