Mulley Musings: Father Christmas

Today, we headed to Chapel Hill for brunch with Santa (or Father Christmas as Jack calls him--we're fancy in the Mulley house!). This is, by far, one of my favorite Christmas traditions that we have in our house. It will be a sad day when the kids are too cool to have brunch with Father Christmas--let's all take a moment to hope that time never comes. This year, Ghee-Ghee came along on our adventure. Jack has been talking about having brunch with Father Christmas for weeks and he was very excited about seeing him.

After I got the boys dressed, I snapped a picture of them together because I didn't know how things would go once we saw the big guy in the red suit.

When we got to brunch I got the boys and myself some food and then sat down to start eating. All of a sudden, we hear sleigh bells and a hearty Ho Ho Ho! We look up and see Santa! The look on Jack's face was pure love and excitement.

He spotted Santa

Santa making the rounds

I've learned from previous years that it's best to not have Jack wait in line for long so I quickly got in line to wait for our chance to talk to Santa. We were third in line, but Santa likes to take time to talk to everyone (and I really appreciate that) so the line doesn't move as fast as it does at the mall.

Jack came to join me in line and was getting more and more excited as his turn came.

We're next!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Once it was our turn, Jack got a case of the "bashfuls".

He insisted on Mommy joining him

Father Christmas sharing his sleigh bells with Jack

Then we decided to add Sam to the mix. He got a case of the "don't leave me with that stranger dude".

At least Father Christmas and I are enjoying ourselves

Of course, we had to get Daddy in the picture, too. We do that every year.

The Mulleys and Father Christmas

Then Jack told Santa that he wanted a train for Christmas and that Sam wanted one, too. We asked Santa if he wanted to hold the littlest baby and he said, "Where is the littlest baby?" and Jack replied, "In Mommy's tummy!"

The "Littlest Mulley" in Santa's lap.

So the "Littlest Mulley" sat in Santa's lap and he said that was probably the youngest child he'd ever held.

*Oh, you didn't know we were expecting Mulley #3? We blogged about it at the beginning of November, but in a very subtle manner. SURPRISE! Not many people picked up on our announcement so we just enjoyed our little secret a little longer.*

Back to story already in progress:

After being terrorized by (and terrorizing) Father Christmas, we finished eating and then Jack was ready to get his face painted and get a balloon animal.