Santa

Joel's work invited Santa to visit the office and have cookies with all the kids of employees. After Larkin and Willa woke up from their naps they started squealing and were so excited to go and see Santa. I was pretty surprised at this because we've tried to see him in the mall and they usually do not get within 10 feet of the guy without crying or frantically gripping my leg.

They picked up out their "fancy clothes for Santa" and spent a long time combing their hair in the bathroom and getting everything just right. Larkin was upset that she didn't own a pair of real high heels and thought that they would be perfect for meeting Santa.

Joel met us in the parking lot and told the girls that he thought Santa had come down the chimney into his office, which scared Willa a little bit. She grabbed Joel's hand and immediately started looking to the ceiling, as if he would fall from the sky at any moment.

Once we got to him, the girls went up to him pretty easily and we asked him what his favorite cookies were. Santa said he loved peanut butter cookies the best, which made both the girls grimace since they've never had peanut butter cookies before and they thought that sounded disgusting. Santa also said he loved egg nog, and they didn't know what egg nog was either, so they looked at him (and at me) like he was speaking some other language.

As soon as we got off the topic of food and onto what they wanted for Christmas, thing got better. Willa talked to him for a little while and told him she wanted a baby doll and a dress, and I don't think Larkin said anything but she did smile a lot at him. Santa even had presents for the girls--some princess sticker books!

After all the kids had a chance to talk to him and get their gifts, we went into a conference room and had cookies. Santa walked in and Willa looked totally amazed and said loudly, "HEY! SANTA CAN WALK!!"

All in all it was a great first Santa experience!