The Santa Debacle

My friend sent me some cute Santa pictures with her boys, which reminded me that I was wanting to do that this year. You always go in with the idea of that perfect, precious picture you are trying to emulate with beautiful smiles, wide eyes, and you can practically see Santa's belly shaking like a bowl full of jelly he's so jolly because your kids are so darn cute and well behaved. The idea was to go to the gym and stop by the mall on the way home. I dressed Daisy in this cute little outfit-- including the tights which she has never worn yet because I hate putting pantyhose on myself let alone someone else, but that's neither here nor there-- and dug around for some shoes, which she isn't wearing yet, but thought it would look nice with her dressy little outfit and tights. Didn't have any that worked, but no big deal. Then it was time for Zekers to get dressed. I wanted to put him in one of my Dad's shirts he had as a boy for sentimental reasons and all. First I put it on with a pair of slacks. The shirt was just a tad too small, so I decided to put a white onesie-type shirt underneath it. I put on a pair of dress shoes and thought we were ready to go. Zeke said the shoes were 'too fit' (too tight) and the shirt was also too fit and didn't look quite right. So I got a red collared shirt and a different pair of shoes. It was on the large side and really didn't go with the tight Grandpa shirt and the shoes were too small. I got another pair of shoes for Z. At this point I heard Daisy pass some gas so I thought she should be changed. Off with her skirt, unsnap her onesie, take off the tights and finally there's the dirty nappy! As I am changing The Girl, The Boy comes in with his croc sandals, which really didn't go with her dress pants, but he insisted they did. I tried the original dress shoes again and he threw a fit so I opted for a different pair of dress shoes which were too big. (I should probably add that there were a few tears from Zeke at this point.) Next I decided the shirt didn't look right so I got a blue onesie-type shirt with a low collar thing. Still didn't look right. Then I got a white t-shirt under the Grandpa shirt. I took off the big shoes and settled on just tennis shoes. His outfit still didn't look right so I tried to change into jeans, but Zekers wouldn't have it; since he had been through 5 shirts and 5 shoes I decided to listen to him. Finally, we were off to the mall! Not only did I miss my gym class, but class was already over by the time we left the house. The bright spot of pictures was that there was no line--brilliant! "Things are going our way now," I thought. I stuck Daisy up on the old man's lap and she sat there like a champ. Zeke is going through a phase where he doesn't like the camera, let alone posing for a camera whilst sitting on some fat, hairy stranger in an odd looking red crushed-velvet suit. Of course he refused to sit on Santa's knee. So, for fifteen bucks this is the picture we ended up with. Merry Christmas!