Meeting Santa Claus

We took Eliza to meet Santa Claus two times before Christmas.  We went to the Bass Pro Shop first as we heard it had a great "Winter Wonderland" and a nice Santa Claus.  I went in to see if we had to wait in line and even more to my surprise they gave me a ticket to come back at 4:30 (it was 12:15 at this point!). YIKES!  Needless to say, we didn't wait around or come back that day to take our picture with Santa.  So we decided to stop at Buy Buy Baby for a few items and luckily Santa was there as well :)  I wasn't a huge fan of the Santa at Buy Buy Baby, but we at least got a picture without having to pay an arm and a leg.  Liza wasn't that happy to meet Santa.  She looked at him multiple times trying to figure out who he was and what was with the long, white beard.  After a few takes in trying to get the "perfect" picture, she finally lost it and was ready to move on (and away from Santa).

I decided to try again at Bass Pro Shop when I was on my Winter break.  I should have waited in the line when my mom was up to assist, but didn't want to spend time in a line waiting for a picture with Santa when we could be doing other fun things.  So I braved taking Eliza to Santa on my own.  OH MY GOODNESS!!!  Don't think I will be doing that again.  Santa was in his "shop" at 10 am so I left our house at 9:15 thinking I would beat the crowd.  WRONG.  There were a ton of people waiting in line, but no tickets to come back were being handed out yet.  So we waited.  Not an easy task with my little lady who wants to check everything out, but can't walk independently.  I had our stroller piled up with our coats, the diaper bag, snacks, and my camera ready pushing it along while holding Eliza's hand and trying to entertain her while we waited.  We FINALLY got to meet and take our picture with Santa and left Bass Pro Shop at 10:55.  I was exhausted!  Pretty sure next year I will be bringing back up.  The Santa at Bass Pro Shop was everything I wanted for Eliza!  He was so genuine and spent some time asking Eliza what she wanted for Christmas (Mommy did all the answering), but it just meant a lot.  The decorations were great too!  So here are the pictures of our little Liza bug's meeting with Santa x2.

"Mommy, who is this man?"

Definitely not sure of him

And we're done!

Waiting in line at Bass Pro Shop

Although Eliza looks as if she's going to jump off Santa's lap at least no tears were shed!  Maybe next year will be better!  Can't wait to compare all the pictures to this one in year's to come.  So many fun memories!