Christmas is near!!!

CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

I finally got all the decorations out. I decided I'd better get pictures before the kids destroyed them. lol.

PICTURES WITH SANTA

I mentioned this last year, but this year I'm even more disappointed. Every year we take the kids to the mall to see Santa and snap a picture for the scrapbook. I'm certain we aren't the only family that does this. Three years ago when we went to the mall in Provo to see Santa, they asked that we only snap one picture which seemed to me like a reasonable request. The next year we were asked to stay outside the Santa area to take pictures. This was a little frustrating, but honestly the area wasn't that big, and it was easy to get a good picture standing outside of it. NO big deal. But last year the mall wouldn't allow people to take pictures with their own cameras at all. I was pretty frustrated, but the mall here in Idaho Falls still allowed pictures outside the roped off area so we waited until we came for Christmas to get pictures with Santa Claus. This year we happened upon the Santa square in the mall just after Thanksgiving. In front of the square is a sign that asks that you refrain from all picture taking. And their only photo option is $25. I'm rather upset by it all. Its a good way to turn a happy momma into a grumpy grinch. :-(  Okay. Rant over. 

The good news is good old Wal-Mart not only has a Santa (not nearly as impressive as the mall Santa of course), but they take pictures and print 5x7's of them FOR FREE! We just happened to be shopping there Saturday afternoon when they said on the intercom that you could get a free 5x7 picture with Santa back in the photo center. I figured they'd put all three of them on his lap and snap one picture, but the girl took picture of each of them and printed them all! It was rather refreshing after the whole mall incident... Anyway, I didn't think to take my own pictures for the blog so I took pictures of our 5x7's. They look much better in person but its the best I could do.

Lily LOVES Santa. The second she saw him, she went RUNNING up to him and gave him a HUGE hug! It was the sweetest thing to watch! She then told him that she hopes to get a Spiderman Costume from him for Christmas!

Both times we've seen Santa this year, Crystal has been insanely shy. She's always been a little shy in general, but the past few years she's done great with Santa. I'm not sure why she's being so timid this year, but we had a hard time getting her to even smile for the camera. She asked for an Elsa doll.

Jay liked Santa ... from a distance. He gave him a high five and smiled, but he wasn't about to sit on that man's lap. lol.

RANDOM PICTURES OF THE WEEK

Ty was trying to get Jay to show his muscles but for some odd reason Jay thought that meant to mush his cheeks together. lol. It was hilarious! Crystal tried showing him too but he kept doing the same thing. lol.