12.16.13 - A picture 16 yrs in the making

We have never been a big Santa house.  My parents scarred me early with a traumatic Santa experience - it's still too painful to write about 35 years later - so when Marcy and I began our family we didn't feel real strongly one way or the other about Santa having a serious role in the celebration of Christmas in our home.

As young parents, we always thought that kids' pictures with Santa were cute and always wanted our kids to get a picture taken with Mr. Claus.  Makela, however, never thought it was cute and has always been scared of Santa.  To the point that as soon as she had words to express thought, she argued and fought against it.  As a result, we have never had a picture taken with Makela sitting on Santa's lap.

All that changed this past weekend!  Makela mustered up the courage that has been building for over 16 years to pose for that picture we have always dreamed of.  Sure, it wasn't the cute little girl in a special Christmas dress with a big holiday smile; or the little baby girl screaming stranger danger; or a little girl with eyes of a believer having just shared a secret Christmas wish with her holiday hero.  Those are all cute and funny scenes, but we got our picture, and this one will go in some scrapbook somewhere labeled as "Makela's First Santa Picture" and it will mean a bit more to us because the line we stood in for Santa was 16 years long.