SANTA! I KNOW HIM!!

If you don't know what movie the title of this post is from, I highly suggest to run to your TV and watch "Elf".  Immediately.  GO!

We met the big guy himself on Saturday, and the kids were beside themselves with excitement.  We went to our township community center for "Lunch with Santa" with some friends from daycare.  Liam kept saying "Sanna, Sanna!" and trying to cut in line to get to him.  So, it's finally our turn and he marches his little bum up the set of stairs, trots over to the big Santa throne, I put him on his lap, and.....

Yeah, tears.  Oops. I guess he liked the idea of him more than being plopped into his lap.  The good news is, his reaction to Santa was slightly less upsetting that his reaction to the Easter Bunny. (remember that picture made it onto the Ellen show?  Yeah, this one wasn't quite that bad)

Jake, of course, loved it, and told Santa all about school, his friends, his wish list, etc....  After Jake was done, Liam tried to lunge for Santa again, but then got upset once I started to put him in his lap.  I figured out that he wanted to "talk" to Santa, but not necessarily up close as personal on the lap.  We compromised:

I got my eye on you, big guy.

 After that, there was time to play with friends, make some crafts,play games, get faces painted, and watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas". 

Liam ignore the small kids as always, and tries to play with Jake's friends.

Jake, Nicky, Zach

Jake & Zach, enjoying the Charlie Brown special with some popcorn

Jake's original facepainting request was a transformer; he settled for a tree and rudolph nose.

Zach & Jake, showing off their painted faces

While Liam might not have been a huge fan of Santa up close, he LOVED seeing the reindeer.  As I've mentioned before, deer of any form are his current obsession, so we had to drag him away from this display outside:

They were all holding hands...your heart just melted, right?

One of the moms from daycare had arranged a secret santa gift exchange for all of the kids, so once they finished all of their activities, they tore into their presents.  Jake got a Lego set, and Liam received a small soccer ball and a toddler-sized Finn McMissle car that lights up. 

Is this not the cutest group of kids ever??

We had a great time, and we're so lucky to have found such a great group of friends through daycare!