Visiting Santa

As Christmas drew near, we headed out one evening to the James Island County Park Holiday Festival of Lights. It was really quite spectacular. Midway through driving around to see the lights, you can stop in "Santa's Village," where the main attraction is - of course - meeting Santa.

Owen was really excited. And so were about one hundred other kids, so there was a really long line. But we stuck it out in the cold (I know it's Charleston-cold, but our blood thins down here, people - it was cold). Bill and I waited in line while Boo and Owen explored Santa's Village and Owen had a love affair with the oversized ornaments hanging all over the place.
When it looked like we were nearing the action, Owen and Boo joined us back in line. Owen couldn't get on the stage fast enough - he wanted to meet Santa NOW.

But when the rubber met the road, Owen wasn't so sure about ole' Santa after all.
The second we were face-to-face with Santa, his eagerness morphed into wariness. (And with good cause. I apologize in advance for talking badly of this poor man sitting out in the cold with a zillion kids climbing on and off of his lap, but he wasn't really a convincing Santa in either the appearance or the demeanor departments. I admit we're spoiled after two years visiting Santa at University Mall in Chapel Hill - that man IS Kris Kringle.)

Santa didn't say or do much, but he did hand Owen a candy cane. Here we are below, with me all "Hey look! A candy cane!" and Owen looking at it like he was convinced it was covered in Anthrax.
Finally, I decide to rip the band-aid off, and I plop Owen down on this biology professor's Santa's lap. It didn't go well.
At this point, Santa's sitting there thinking, "We've got a jumper!" and swearing that he will NOT be doing this again next year, when the photographer steps in - BLESS this man - and starts working some serious magic. This guy knew what he was doing. He hands Owen some sort of small fuzzy stuffed animal that jumped around, which worked like a charm.
And Owen is temporarily distracted enough for this shot (I did pay $12 - yes TWELVE dollars - for the professional, up-close version of this ONE photograph - I mean, Owen actually looked really happy in the shot he got and I wanted to reward his job well done):
Click, and then quick like a bunny I whisked Owen off of Santa's lap, and together we bid Santa adieu.
Once we got off the stage, Owen announced that he did like to see Santa, but that he did NOT care to sit on Santa's lap again.

Understood, baby.