Raleigh Grace and Santa 2012!

This year our trip to see Santa Claus was so much more enjoyable than last year!  

This year, as soon as Raleigh Grace started seeing Santa around she started to wave at him and he really became her "friend"! We would see Santa in ad's in the paper and she would kiss him and wave to him and when we saw Santa statues in stores she would always wave, rub his beard and then want to hug him.  I was so anxious to see how she did with the "real life" Santa!  We didn't make a huge rush out of it this year so about a week before Christmas we finally got her all dressed up in her Sunday's best to go see him.  (I'll admit the week previous we were in Bass Pro and they had free pictures with Santa! I was so bummed that RG was wearing a pink plaid shirt and jeans and didn't want her to clash with him in the picture so we skipped that opportunity. ha! She did wave at him from afar but that was about all).  

This year we decided to go to a different mall thats a little (okay, a lot) fancier than where we went last year.  The company that was taking pictures was so much more professional and even let us "work" with Raleigh Grace to get the perfect picture.  Oh, did I mention we waited in line for less than 5 minutes? AND they had a TV in line with Santa cartoons on! How cute is that!?  As we were waiting in line, Raleigh Grace was sooo excited, she kept pointing and waving and Santa and kicking her legs and smiling.  Success- no tears this year!? As it was our "turn" I sat her in his lap and she just stared at him-- I was for sure she was going to pet his beard but she didn't.  She just kept looking at him- straight faced.  Not sad, not happy, just observant.  I pulled "bunny" out and played peek-a-boo with her until we got a PRECIOUS smile!  I loved the photographers- they probably took 10 or 12 picture (that can be viewed and saved online for free) and they even let us take our own pictures with our cameras! Score!  We had so much fun and ordered one 4x6 and 4 wallets for $25dollars.  What a steal :) 

Moral of the story- go to the nicer mall, and wait until almost the last minute to avoid lines :) 

Princess Raleigh Grace and Santa Claus 2012

my favorite! 

K's favorite

 and a fun comparison from last year! :) 

oh okay, and a few out-takes ;)