ho ho ho

What better way to welcome in the holiday season than to hang out at yup, you guessed it, the mall. Taking pictures with Santa...(please note that according to my five year old, this is not the "real" Santa, he is just some guy dressed up in a costume at the mall who reports back to the "real" Santa).


High fiving Santa because the hug that she wanted to give him turned out to be just a little too scary once they were actually face to face.


Sipping hot cocoa with whipped cream at Peet's. Zuzu's first hot cocoa experience which she actually had to be coaxed into...and certainly not the last. (Don't they really look alike here?)


Frog jumping at the mall playground. This is actually when the most entertaining part happened but I was too busy laughing out loud to capture it on film.

Zuzu kept getting in Gage's way as he was trying to jump the frog. Why wouldn't she? Her mission in life is to annoy him, right?

Anyway, he went over and tried to push her off the frog, while yelling at her, "Zuzu, get out of my way!" When from out of no where Santa appeared outside the gate (presumably taking a potty break) and shouted at Gage, (swear this is true) "Hey, be nice to your sister. Remember I told you that? Or I'll move you from the nice list to the naughty list."

He then turned and walked around the corner (towards the restroom). All the kids on the playground stared, the parents giggled and what did Gage do? He turned to me and said, "But Mommy, I want Santa to see me jump over the frog!". Nice.


What do you think? Is this advertisement alluring or what? My kids couldn't tell you what it was selling but doesn't it look like they want to climb in? It was more difficult to pull them away from this than Santa, the hot cocoa, or the playground. Go figure.