Meeting Santa

This is the first year that Colin is really starting to understand the idea of Santa.  He is still not quite there but it has been so much fun teaching him about Christmas!  He is so excited for Santa to come to our house.  After Santa heard good things about Colin from his Grandma Liz (thank you) he received a personal video message from Santa himself!  Colin was delighted!  He has watched that video over and over.  It amazes him that Santa knows his name, has a picture of him in his book of good little kids, and even knows what he wants for Christmas (Buzz Lightyear toys).  If you ask him who Santa is his answer is "Christmas", so he is still learning but it has been a blast this year with him understanding a little more about Christmas.  We're even trying to teach him about giving.  He is learning while watching me wrap toys for our nephews.  It was a hard lesson at first because he just had his birthday and all the gifts were for him.  There is progress though!  He also is learning about giving gifts to people we do not know that are less fortunate than us.  He helped me pick out a gift for a little girl from a local military family that our work adopted for Christmas.  This has been such a great Christmas so far!

Colin also met Santa at the mall.  We were not planning on meeting him this visit so we were not dressed for the occassion.  It had snowed so we were all bundled up.  Colin was so excited in the line.  He kept trying to peek over the gate and get Santa's attention by whispering "hi" to him.  THEN, once we got there the lady taking pictures picked him up and set him down next to Santa...well Colin is a little picky about who picks him up so he did not like that and started crying.  Like REALLY crying.  So, his picture is of him crying.  Still cute, but more on the funny side.  After we had lunch he asked if he could go say "hi" to Santa again.  I told him that he cried last time so that may not be the best idea.  He said he cried because the girl put him in Santa's lap instead of mommy.  So sad.  We did not go a second time, but we were try again next year.
Colin's first Santa picture: