Garland Squared: Santa!

"Santa! I (DON'T) know him!" That is a quote out of one of my favorite Christmas movies, Elf. I love that movie. And I can't wait until Drew and Anna Kate are old enough to watch it with me. But, I digress.... back to our big adventure this weekend.
We went to see Santa on Sunday as the Bass Pro Shop. Megan works as one of his elves so after naps we went to see her at work and to sit on Santa's lap. Drew was just excited to see Megan. He could have cared less about our other plans. There wasn't much of a line so we got in and out pretty quickly. In the few minutes that we waited, we talked about Santa and told Drew and Anna Kate that they were supposed to tell him what they want for Christmas (they are still too young to grasp all of this), and we watched the other kids sit on his lap. Anna Kate was excited and I had to convince her she needed to wait her turn. Drew was still just excited that Megan was there. When it was our turn Anna Kate marched about half way down the little isle and then decided she wanted me to carry her. That was when our excitement for Santa ended. She wanted nothing to do with him. She wouldn't look at him, talk to him, nothing. And she had the death grip on me. At one point, she even had her leg thrown up on my shoulder. There was no way she was going to sit on his lap. Drew talked to him and told him he wanted a truck and a digger for Christmas. But he had the death grip on John Clay and was not going to entertain sitting on his lap either. We finally convinced them that we could squat down in front of him and have a family picture. I don't think it is one I'll frame and hang on the wall. It is a terrible picture of me, it is great of Anna Kate (she's looking AND smiling at the camera!). Drew is completely expressionless, and it is a good picture of John Clay besides the fact he looks like he is hung up by his shirt collar because of Drew's tight hold on his shirt. We got out of there without any tears, no decent pictures with Santa, and a couple of candy canes. After Santa, we rode the carousel which they really enjoyed, we went and looked at the big fish, and rode the glass elevator up and down about 10 times with Mamaw while Papaw shopped. We had fun and again, it was great in their book because Megan was there.
After Bass Pro we went to Cracker Barrel for dinner. It was a bit of a disaster because our 20 minute wait to be seated turned into an hour but I will choose not to relive it. Drew and Anna Kate enjoyed ~~destroying all of the displays~~ playing with all of the toys. When we finally got out of there, we crossed the parking lot and went to the light show in the Smokies parking lot. I was sure they were going to love all of the lights. And they did talk about how pretty there were but they were mostly interested in what buttons they could push since they were out of their car seats. I guess they are still a little too young to truly appreciate the lights coordinated with the music. I was impressed and enjoyed it so it definitely wasn't a wasted trip!
That was our Sunday. The rest of our weekend was pretty low key. We spent Saturday evening at DotDot and Grandaddy's while John Clay's band played. Aunt Ashley, Nanny Norma, and Uncle Papaw came over for dinner and that is always a good time. The weather has been amazing (it feels more like Spring than Winter) so we have been taking advantage of the opportunity to spend time outside. Drew and Anna Kate are loving all of the Christmas decorations and I am loving how excited they are about everything. It is contagious!

Drew took Anna Kate for a wagon ride on Saturday. Such a good brother!

Anna Kate decided she needed to get her tutu out and wear it on Saturday. She wore it all day. She even wore it to help Grandaddy vacuum up the leaves. Because fashion should always come first!