Oh, the excitement of sitting on Santa's lap... Let's walk through the steps of wonderment together, shall we?

As I remember...

1. Get children dressed in cute outfits, force coats, hats and mittens all to the dismay of the children who want nothing to do with said outerwear.

2. Drive to the mall... is there anything worse than the mall? At this time of year?

3. Stand in a mile-long line with many aggravated children anticipating the horror that lies ahead.... Santa.

4. Upon reaching the end of the line, and after paying in advance for your

Christmas Photo with Santa,

hand your child over to the attendant, elf, high school drop out, whatever you want to call them, to deliver to the lap of Santa.

5. Watch your children as they realize the terror that has become their life, beg them to smile for the camera, realize after some bribing they aren't going to smile, rescue them from the disaster.

6. Wait 15-30 minutes for the photo which you were required to pay for before realizing the reality of the smiling situation.

Allow me to share some of our extended family photos with Santa...

Here are my brother's triplets with Santa. (about 10 years ago) If you look closely, you will see that bribery was attempted with snacks of some sort...

Santa: Smiling

Triplets: Not so much

Here are photos of my husband and I with Santa, both at age 2.... I appear to be dealing with the horror better than he, although I don't seem particularly thrilled about the situation... It seems that my husband may have been coaxed with some sort of stuffed animal... to no avail... Santa looks to be using a significant amount of force in keeping him seated. At least my Santa looks gentle.

Here's our darling daughter, also age 2, with my dad attempting to comfort her during this dreadful occasion, which doesn't seem to be working. Santa's beard is so huge, I'm not sure he knew where the commotion was coming from...

Thank goodness "Sitting with Santa" (aka Holiday Horror) is recorded in case our memory fails us in later years...

(Truthfully, I have tons of photos with smiling children, but they didn't really fit in with this post...)