The 4 HOUR hunt for Santa...

Today is my first day of vacation. Ava is out of school with me for the next two weeks. I decided to take her to the mall today to see Santa. She hasn't met him before so I thought it was a good time. Little did I know everyone else had the same idea for today.

Santa arrived at 11 so we got to the mall at 10:45, and so did everyone else. The line was REALLY long so Ava and I decided to hit up a couple of stores and the mall playground. She had a great time shopping at the Disney store and Old Navy. She then had even more fun playing on the playground. She just ran and ran. Then we got a cookie and headed back over to check out the line for Santa. It was a bit shorter so we decided to wait. After almost an hour of waiting they told us that Santa takes lunch for an hour at 1. About 10min to 1 we were 10th in line...and they left. Ava and I played with her ball, read books and sang Christmas songs while we waited for Santa to come back. I contemplated leaving but when she first saw Santa she screamed, "SANTA!" really loud. Then when she saw him leaving for lunch she cried so hard...I just couldn't leave without her getting to meet him.

When we finally got our turn to meet Santa she clung to me. She didn't want to sit with him alone so I joined her in the photo. She was excited to see him, she even gave him a high five and blew him a kiss. She had the best time. Seeing how happy it made her made that 4 hour mall trip totally worth it! Here are some pictures from our day: