The Magic of Christmas

Yesterday I did the yearly trip to Sears to get Kira's birthday pictures done. Since her birthday falls so close to Christmas she wears her new Christmas outfit for her pictures. Last year she had a great session with the photographer who got some beautiful shots of my two year old. However, this year was a different story.

I thought that with her being a year older I would not have to worry about her being shy, crying, or wanting to sit on my lap. That is exactly what happened, AND to top it off, my darling three year old refused to smile. Now for those of you that know my youngest, she is smiling all the time.

Hmmm.

So there I was in this photo session that was going nowhere.Just me, the photographer and my grumpy three year old. I was desperate,..there was nothing else I could do. There was was no other time I could do this and did I really want to go through the trouble of making another appointment and dressing her up again? No. So I had no other choice.....

I resorted to bribery. "If you can smile for Mommy we will go see Santa. He's here in the Mall." Well, did things turn around from there. Kira started smiling and hamming it up for the photographer, who was happy cause it looked like she was going to make a sale after all. We ended up getting a couple of those poses then headed into the mall to find Santa.

We spotted his house from across the Food Court. We slowly approached the sectioned off area at the front of his house. As we got closer I knelt down beside Kira and said "Look, there is Santa," and pointed him out to her. Well, her jaw dropped and she just starred at him.(last time we were there his chair was empty) Then, Santa looked at her and started waving. "Santa, Santa saw me!" she said in hushed yet excited tones. She then began to wave back.

We stayed there for a few minutes, in the midst of this special interaction, and enjoyed the magic of the moment. In Kira's three year old mind she knew there was a Santa because Santa saw her, Santa waved at her so Santa's real. I wanted to hold onto that with her for as long as I could.

As we walked out of the mall, past the bulk food store with all the candy, Kira started crying. In typical mommy fashion I asked her what was wrong. I expected to hear something about wanting candy instead I heard "I want to go see Santa!"

It seems my daughter has a new obsession with the Jolly Red Elf. I guess I am going to have to include a visit to good old Saint Nick every time we are out doing errands in the mall. Maybe next time I decide to bribe my child I should just resort to the old classic.....Candy.