She sat on Santa's lap!

Sunday was the children's Christmas party for Joe's squadron. I wasn't sure how Kayla would do sitting on Santa's lap and figured it would be a rerun of last year. Last year she was ok if we were holding her and she looked at Santa, but when it came time to sit on his lap and get her present she wanted nothing to do with it. I couldn't get her to sit on his lap so I tried standing beside him and having her stand in the middle - not happening - she was wriggling and arching her back and trying to reach her daddy!

Last week anytime we came across Santa on TV or in a book I would exclaim it was Santa and talk about Santa etc and she would point out "tanta" too...but I know seeing him in person was a lot different so I didn't have my hopes up that she would actually sit on his lap for a picture.

Here we are outside waiting for Santa to show up - on a fire truck no less! Santa got out of the truck and walked right by her on the sidewalk and did she care? Not so much. She was much more interested in the fire truck (bye truck! bye bye!) Her aunt Kelly will get a kick out of her liking the fire truck more than Santa since she is a volunteer firefighter you know!

Back inside we go for all the kids to wait for their name to be called and receive their present. It worked out that Kayla's gift fell to the bottom of the bag and she was one of the last to be called. I was surprised that she actually sat with me the whole time watching each child get their present and open it. What happened to my child who would usually be up running around and not interested in paying attention to something like that?! She did really good though and waited patiently. I kept asking her if she was going to go sit on Santa's lap and get her present when she heard her name called and pointing out all the other kids who were doing just that. Then there was one little boy who really started crying and wanted nothing to do with the big guy in the red suit. That made Kayla start her fake crying and I thought oh boy here we go - now she really won't go up there!

But she did! He called her name and she jumped right up and walked up to Santa to get her present with no prompting from us. She didn't protest when he picked her up and put her in his lap either. Now I know she isn't smiling in any of these pictures - I couldn't get her attention to look at the camera and smile; she was more interested in the present! But her body language says it all - she's relaxed on his lap and siting back and not trying to get down. I couldn't believe she actually sat up there!