The Business of Seeing Santa

Small Human doesn't have school on Thursdays, so I thought that since it was pouring rain out, we would try to see Santa. I called ahead and was told the line was 15 minutes long, so we rushed down there. As you can probably guess though, "rushing" with a toddler and an infant is not fast at all, and by the time we got there the line was 30 minutes long. What did rushing entail? Putting the boys in their Christmas elf pajamas and coats, then I ran down the back way to our car carrying our stroller, moved the car under the covered parking, put the stroller in the trunk, ran back up to get the kids, lugged the giant baby in his car seat down three flights of stairs while Noah dawdled and meandered down, loaded both boys in and drove downtown in the pouring rain.

Now, for those of you who don't know about Seattle's Downtown Nordstrom Santa, he's kind of the gold standard Santa, and the lines can get epic and long. We're talking 2 - 3 hours long, so 30 minutes is an amazing wait, or so I was told by Santa's elves.

Santa's elves have obviously never had to wait in line with a two year old who was mastering the potty. I decided to just go for it, go big or go home. In my bag was a spare pair of green pants and underwear and snacks. Elias was asleep in his stroller, and Noah did pretty well for the first 20 minutes. That's when we realized that we were waiting in line behind his friend from preschool! This was quite fun and exciting, but it turned out to be a little too exciting for my Noah. He and little Rosy made each other very hyper, and Santa's village was thoroughly rocked by our energetic toddlers.

I was pretty stressed out because our kids were the only ones running around like lunatics (ok really just my kid), and at one point he turned to me and said, "Mum-mum, I have to pee in the potty." We were deep in the line and it was almost our turn! Very luckily, we knew people in the line who were able to watch the now awake baby Elias so that Noah and I could run inside and downstairs to the bathroom.

Do you know what department stores during the holidays are like? It was like running a gauntlet with a toddler in tow. At one point I just picked him up like a football and ran, holding him dangling at my side with one arm in front of me clearing the way. We made it to the bathroom where he had a truly sizable potty pee, and got back just in time to be third in line.

This kid was so comfortable in front of Santa this year. He chatted with Mrs. Claus about snowmen; lay down on Santa's chaise lounge and snuggled under the faux fur throw; and practiced asking Santa for a yellow cement mixer. I'm glad he had a great time because by then, I was drenched in sweat, hunched over from stress and absolutely starving. I had packed snacks for the toddler but not for myself!

I'm glad we got it over with got to see Santa, and I snapped some cute iPhone pics of my boys with the big guy. The pro photos are coming in the mail on a CD that I will share later. They are kind of a present for the grandparents and great grandparents.

Here are my crappy phone pics from the day's adventures. Maybe later I can enjoy today's Christmas spirit, but right now I need a glass of wine.