Merry Ch-is-mas, Santa!

After basically giving up on visiting Santa last week, we had such a good morning today that this afternoon I decided to give it one more shot. I knew the lines would be crazy since school was out, but we hauled up to North Star Mall to visit the best Santa I've ever seen. They have had the same Santa the past three years we've been in town and he is just amazing and worth a wait.

I was right: the lines were insane, but Colin was such a trooper and actually seemed to enjoy the time we spent in line (the juice and sandwich we got from one of the mall vendors might have helped a little).
He also enjoyed the pink dog in the Victoria's Secret display! LOL!
About the time I was beginning to worry if he'd last much longer, we arrived at Santa's house.
Colin was very excited to run up and see Santa, so as soon as the little girls in front of us were finished, I let go of his hand and got out my camera as he ran up. I should have known that despite his glee at Santa being there, he had to pass Santa's bag of books first and that brought him to a screeching halt!
After some coaxing from me, he shook Santa's hand and climbed up into his lap.
But he had not forgotten the book. The super-sweet Santa read a couple pages to him and encouraged me to get as many pics as I wanted. :) Colin loved this (despite being bummed that the reindeer were not available).
Then it was time to leave and Colin got down and said, "bye Santa, Merry Ch-is-mas" and then...pricelessly, reached up for a hug! I quickly grabbed my camera again and snapped a few more pictures. The sweet mothers behind me were like, "take your time and get a good one, this is precious!" What good sports!
All in all it was the most perfect trip to visit Santa I could have hoped for! Here's the "official" pic: