Santa

We have been to see Santa at the Owl's Nest toy shoppe in Southlake Town Square every year since Nora's first Christmas. She was three months old and I knew I wanted to take her to get Santa pictures. I was a new mom and had absolutely no idea what to expect out of that kind of experience. We got all dressed up, loaded up the car, and headed to North Park mall with Auntie K. I figured it would take awhile, but I had no idea how long it would actually take. We had to get a number and wait in a forever-long line. I had given us a little time to spare, but a three month old takes about three naps a day and if you've ever had a three month old you know that they are kind of a necessity.

Nora was not the kind of baby that would sleep well while we were out or even in the car. In fact, she hated the car, especially at a nap time. I really didn't ever understand how people liked to drive their babies around in cars to help them fall asleep until Janie came along. Anyways, we tried really hard to make it to see Santa but it did not work out for us. I left empty handed and a little disappointed but ended up getting a good lead from a friend about Santa at the toy shoppe. So I took her there, waited in basically no line, and walked out with some really sweet pictures of baby Nora with Santa.

The next few years of Santa have not been the easiest of experiences at the Owl's Nest. We had to wait in longer lines {I'm not sure how I worked that out the first time} but we were also in a toy store, so there was plenty to do. One time we went they had a real reindeer which I thought Nora would like to see but as it turns out, she was terrified of it. And then our uneasy toddler was getting her picture taken and the sweet photographer held up a stuffed reindeer to try and make her smile and the screaming began... And then having two of them was not any easier. But, we had good experiences. We got to see our same Santa each year and we didn't have to travel very far to do so.

When I heard that the Owl's Nest was closing its doors, I was so sad that our experience with this Santa would be over. I need to work a little earlier to find where he will be next year because I did miss him this time around and I heard he still had business locally.

I looked into other options and decided on the Main Street Grapevine Santa. I was able to schedule an appointment so that we didn't have to wait in line. We went on a Saturday morning and there wasn't really a line anyways. I still don't know if I even went to the right spot to get our pictures made! I pre-paid for digital copies of all the images. It didn't go great but it went okay. We were given a CD of our images {we got five} which I found to be a little inconvenient being that neither Justin nor I have a disc drive on our computers, but we found a way to get our pictures. I don't know... I just didn't love the experience there. Maybe my expectations were too high or maybe just nothing would do. He didn't really talk to the girls much. I guess Janie was being a little bit apprehensive... anyways, moving on!

We also got to venture around downtown Grapevine before it started raining. As it turned out, it was freezing on the morning that we went to see Santa, so the trip was short & sweet.

We will get to see Santa again soon so stay tuned!