Ho-ho-hope they don't hate me for making them sit in Santa's lap

With Ryan in Belgium the weekend before last, my mom and I decided to brave the mall and take R&G to visit Santa. I had done some research beforehand and gotten recommendations on the best (i.e., most realistic and least creepy) Santa in town, and luckily he was at the mall just a few minutes from our house.

Honey got there early to start waiting in line (how spoiled are we??) and we met her up there after we said good-bye and sent Ryan on his way to the airport. We still had to wait a good half-hour, but the boys were on their best behavior, taking in all the sights and sounds of the crowded mall.

As sensitive and stranger-weary as these babies can be, I was convinced the whole Santa experience was going to be reminiscent of a hit-and-run -- we dump them in his lap, they go ballistic, the elf snaps the picture, and we snatch up the traumatized babies, all in less than 30 seconds -- but these two are nothing if not unpredictable. They sat very, very still and didn't shed a tear (or crack a smile, but hey, I'm not complaining) for over 2 solid minutes.

Grant L, Reid R

This Santa stuff is serious business.

Bless Santa's heart, he even tried to tickle Grant to elicit a smile, but that baby clearly was not amused.

Once we decided we had pressed our luck long enough, we went to rescue them... and just before we got to Santa, Reid cracked a smile and Grant turned around and caught a glimpse of the man in red and on went the waterworks.

All was quickly forgotten, though, after Honey bought them some Big Bird and Cookie Monster bow-biters for their shoes and we served them Chick-Fil-A nuggets, lemonade and even a little vanilla ice cream from Marble Slab for lunch.

Let's see Santa top that!