Santa's Lap

Before Christmas gets too far away...

I'll always remember the night.  Skogen refused to wear socks with his Toms, despite the near negative temperatures.  Torsten wore pants that were way too small and shoes that were way too big.  Maida refused to get her hair done or wear anything even remotely cute.  Klaasen had a fever of 104.1, felt crappy, and since we couldn't find his tennis shoes, he wore Skogen's tennis shoes (which were way too big).  It's amazing we even got out the door!  After starting the car to warm up and getting everyone's coats on, we looked for Klaasen's shoes for over an hour.  

Once we finally got to the mall, of course Santa was on break.  However, we made the best of the situation by wasting some time eating dinner in the food court (which, if you have four kids, seems like there is more spilling food on the ground than what actually gets in the mouths).  Luckily after we ate, the line wasn't too long and the kids eagerly anticipated sitting on Santa's lap as we watched other children happily join him on his big red and green chair.

When it was our turn, Maida and Skogen bashfully, but willingly, approached Santa.  Klaasen, on the other hand, talked a big game while standing in line, but when we got up there, he wouldn't get close.  Santa magically pulled a small red stool out from under his chair and Klaasen (with much coaching from Mommy) agreed to sit there.

Skogen knew exactly what he wanted to ask for.  A race track!  Maida, however, had been dreaming about Santa bringing her an American Girl Doll for Christmas, however, being American Girl Dolls are pretty expensive and Daddy didn't think Santa should have to spend that much money on little girls, we encouraged her to think of something else that she wanted just as much.  Being nervous and not really knowing what to say, when it was her turn to talk to Santa, she said, "I really want the same remote control cars that you brought us last year."  HA!  Poor girl felt so out of place and silly.  Klaasen, wanting to be like his brother, asked for a race track, too.

Asking Santa for gifts wasn't the only thing on our agenda.  The main reason we knew we had to pay him a visit at the mall was because we needed to tell him that were weren't going to be home for Christmas. Our plan was to ask him if he could leave the big presents at our house in Minnesota, but bring the stocking stuff down to the house on the beach where we were staying in Florida.  When we asked Santa, he pulled out a big brown leather notebook and wrote down our names and where we were going to be staying.  He told us that Rudolf has a GPS in his nose and Santa would be sure to program this in!

I'm happy to report that Santa, Rudolf, and the rest of the gang did just what we asked!  They blessed our children with socking stuffers in Florida and had one big gift each waiting for us when we got home.  Skogen and Klaasen both got their own race tracks for their cars, Maida got a Cinderella carriage and Cinderella doll, and Torsten got a wooden train.