We went, we waited, we waited, we waited some more, we saw. When we took the interstate exit, we took a left and stopped two car lengths from the top of the exit ramp. He creeped slowly down toward the first stoplight. There is a shopping center on the corner there, so we pulled in and turned Caleb’s carseat around. His first time riding forward facing (wanna know why?)! He could not keep his legs still, he kicked and kicked and kicked. He seemed to enjoy himself.

I turned him around before the drive home. He’ll have to be forward facing soon enough, may as well make the most of our last few months. He wanted to be able to see out of the back. He kept trying to see behind him and actually fussed about it a little bit and said “you can turn me back around.” I, of course, had to take pictures. I excused myself as I asked Scott to hand me my camera when I got him strapped in, saying “Sorry, I’m a blogger, and must blog about this mundane detail as well.” Scott just laughed and I snapped a picture, then another, and a couple more. Finally I said “Okay my dork is showing, I’ll go ahead and get in the car now.” So we exited the opposite side of the shopping center, essentially ‘cutting in line’ from where we had entered the shopping center.

I think we waited between 1.5 and 2 hours in line. They had 3-5 lines entering the park at various places which all had to be condensed into a single file line of cars. It was nuts. We were second guessing our descision after an hour or so. Wondering why we waited so close to Christmas. Why we weren’t there before dark. Caleb kept saying “You can go faster Dad, go faster, go faster!” There were police cars everywhere trying to direct traffic. But once we finally got going, the back of the car silenced in awe. He sat quietly looking most of the time. They have a gift shop in the middle that sells things made by local artisans, hot chocolate and marshmallows. We stopped, and I changed Caleb into some comfy clothes. The car parked next to us had a little girl who appeared to be about 15 months old. She was SCREAMING like there was no tomorrow and hitting her mom! It was not pretty. She was pissed! Finally they plugged a bottle in her mouth and all was quiet, and she turned into their sweet little angel again. We went in and were surprised to see Santa sitting there! I had not planned on taking Caleb, as we have several wailing pictures already. We stood back and watched while Santa talked to a little girl and then handed her a candy cane. I should add here that Caleb had his first candy cane on the way to the festival of lights. It was a little mini one from the UPS store. So Scott scooped him up and walked closer. He asked Caleb if he wanted to sit with Santa. He said no. Then Santa whipped out a candy cane. Scott said “He will give you a candy cane if you sit with him.” “Okay!” That’s my boy. He certainly has a sweet tooth, which he most definitely got honestly. So, he sat with Santa and told him that he wanted new twains, specifically Thomas and Perwcy. We were shocked. Scott was beaming. I didn’t know he had wanted Caleb to go so bad, I just didn’t want to feel obligated to pay $20 for a mall picture of him screaming again. Even though I took these, we still had to pay. It was only $2 but the lady was sort of bitchy about it. She stood next to me, waited on me to push the button, and then snapped “you can pay her.” I said “I’m sorry?” “It is two dollars if you use your own camera, the sign is right here, you can pay her.” I was just like um, okay, no need to be so bitchy about it. You could have them take a Polaroid for $5. No thanks, my memory card costs as much as your camera! *sticks nose in the air right back atcha lady*

And all the wait was worth it…

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