A mama's heart

We've been taking Jack to see the same mall Santa since he was 2 months old, but this year, well, this year was totally different than the last 3 years. Previously we waited in line (sometimes for hours), had our turn, took a quick photo and off we went. When we went on Friday afternoon, there was no line, and Jack was clutching his little wish list stocking he had made in school that day.

This year he understands Santa Claus. He climbed up on Santa's lap and they had a good long chat about what he would like for Christmas. They shared the pictures on his little stocking, and just watching him melted my mama heart. I had to choke back tears in the middle of the mall.
As we were standing in line forking over our $20* for his photo, I caught a glimpse of this photo on the monitor. The one they printed was the standard smile at the camera Jack photo, but this one, well, I could not leave it behind. For me, all the sweetness of kids and Christmas and Santa Claus is in that photo.

I will cherish it forever.

* It took awhile to sort out with them how to get the photo I really wanted, since they have a million crazy regulations about how many photos you must purchase and so forth. In the end I had to pay them an additional $10 to put this one onto a CD. We made a conscious decision when Jack was only a year old to try and visit the same Santa every year, so there would be some continuity to the Santa he saw. That means we end up not doing any of the "free" events, and it bugs me a little that they are so tight fisted about the darn photos. End of rant about that. LOL