Sit on Santa's lap...check

Of course no holiday is complete without a visit to the local mall Santa where your kid gets to sit on "Santa's" lap and tell him about the iPod, iPhone and Wii Fit he wants for Christmas. Oh wait, maybe that's me. Anyway, a couple of years ago I was tipped off to a Santa at a large strip mall joint not too far from our house, which is, shall we say, a little less trafficked than Washington Square Mall. (See prior post for more information.) Maybe it's the Hello Kitty store...I mean, is Hello Kitty even still popular?

Still, with the big date fast approaching, we suspected that pretty much any Santa who is worth his weight in presents and reindeer would be quite popular today. So once again, we got strategic (we are a highly strategic group, we Burpos) and decided to head over shortly before Santa's quittin' time for the day. We strolled right up to a lovely woman who said, "Wow, you timed it just right...we've been running at least an hour-long line all day but now we're empty!" "Well lucky us!," I said as I peered over toward Santa who seemed to be stashing a clear bottle behind his chair. Probably some Perrier...I know Santa likes the fancy water.

So off Ian goes to share his biggest hopes and dreams for this Christmas with Santa - which consistently seem to be a Star Wars Lego set (not happening) and a "set" to go with his Cars stuff. Now, "Santa" may actually bring Ian a Cars "set" if "Santa" could ever figure out what he was talking about but since "Santa" (nor Mrs. "Santa") could not and have reason to believe that what he wants might only exist in his head, well, he's probably not getting that either. Of course he's getting plenty of other things - including two other Lego sets that do not feature Lego people shooting one another. (Besides, he has no real clue what Star Wars even is - he just heard about it from someone at school. This is why we need to get him that bubble we keep talking about.)

Truth be told, I hope he's not bummed out on Christmas morning when neither of these items appears under the tree because on the way home when we were asking him exactly what he and Santa conversed about up there, he said he told Santa that he wants these two particular items and "that's all I want for Christmas. Just those two things." Hmmm...well what about that damn "It's a Pillow! It's a Pet! It's a Pillow Pet!" I practically tackled someone for during the gift exchange at Jeff's holiday party and then had to lay down 20 smackers for one at Fred Meyer when they wouldn't give it up because apparently their kid wanted one, too??

Anyway, suffice it to say that all went very well with the Santa visit. Except Elena, who we quickly gathered wasn't into the large man in the red suit yet when she immediately started screaming bloody murder as soon as Jeff sat her down on Santa's other knee next to Ian. Of course it was actually kind of funny but just so as not to be contacted by CPS tomorrow, I suggested to Jeff that he scoop her back up and we just go ahead and take a pass on bro/sis Santa pic this year. Ian did take a couple of cute pictures with Santa, which the lovely woman was more than happy to sell us at the low, low price of $16.95 per shot - but I figured, why do that when I had slipped the ole' Canon PowerShot out of my coat pocket while the lovely woman was occupied at her camera. With that said, here's our official Illegal Mall Santa Shot of 2010. Enjoy!

Until I write again.