Santa Claus Came to Town

Already! Before Thanksgiving. He did. Santa Claus came to town! And he lit a tree. A really huge tree. With tons of lights. See?
Saturday night the fam and I headed to the Villages of Allen to see the arrival of "The Big Guy" -- seriously, this is what they call him there... I wonder if it's some attempt to be politically correct and not offend anyone with the term "Santa". Though I don't really know who would be offended by a fictitious character who's jolly and brings toys to children. But I digress.

We waited (and waited, and waited) for Santa to make his arrival and "light" the 100,000-bulb tree, and until Carter actually saw Santa, I'm sure he was wondering what all the fuss was about. Then... HE. SAW. HIM. He was on Nick's shoulders to be able to see above the crowd, like this:
And let me tell you: Carter was SO EXCITED to finally see Santa that he kept his eyes transfixed on him until Santa was no longer in view. So excited, in fact, that he didn't even question why Santa arrived on a Zamboni, rather than a sleigh. Though we adults sure did think it strange, I'm sure it had something to do with the Allen Americans hockey game that night.

Carter thoroughly enjoyed seeing Donner and Blitzen, two of Santa's faithful reindeer, and Olivia kept pointing and shrieking at the "gawgs" (a.k.a. dogs, a.k.a. reindeer, a.k.a. any animal that moves and has furr and is larger than her = gawg-gah). We wrapped up the evening with dinner at Mooyah, YUM! and headed home with a couple of tired children pumped full of holiday spirit. Or french fries.

And you know we Easons hardly make a trip out of the house without some sort of photo shoot involved, so here are some worthy of sharing.

I need to come to terms with the fact that I'm terrible at the extended-arm-self-photo. Even more so when small ones are involved.

I think he's counting the ornaments. Or saying cheese and throwing his head back in delight. Take your pick.

Sean & Cristian - headed to the hockey game after the festivities

Jenn & Cristian and me &... the back side of a boy.
Side note: I thought we were completely past the shy, non-smiling-at-the-camera phase, but apparently, I was wrong.

And even if we do get him to look at the camera, we often get a grump-face like this one.

I caught him mid-"Chee-eze". I'm slowly learning to get him to say other words that don't contort his mouth into this awkward shape.

To smile or not to smile... that is the question.

Olivia's got the hang of it now. And Carter? not sure what he's doing with his mouth. Sigh.

Oooh! There's a good one.

Proof that we let Olivia roam stroller-free. Sometimes. Looks like she's super happy about it too.

Even though it appears that she is lunging out of her Daddy's arms, this girl really does LOVE her deh-deh.

A great family shot! I mean, everyone's looking at the camera and all. (And it most certainly was NOT me who bribed the boy with candy if he would just please look at the camera.)

And I'll leave you with this to give you an idea of the scale of the tree. Look real hard at the bottom right corner of the tree, and you'll see my son. Smiling? I'll never know.