I debated on writing this post, since it is the week before Christmas and we are all full of holiday cheer, but I was just to ticked to let this one go!
We have had multiple opportunities to see Jolly ol' Saint Nick for free this season. Of course, each and every time something came up that stopped me from being able to bring both girls. And 99% of the time, it was because one or all of us was sick. But I was determined to get a Santa photo with both of my girls dressed in their holiday finest. I figured Clara would be crying, she hates anything remotely "scary" (like the menacing Chick Fil A cow) but I had been prepping her by showing Santa on tv and talking to her in that high pitched voice you use when you really want a toddler to "get" something. Clara...see Santa? Santa's nice! We like Santa! Santa brings presents! Santa's nice! We get to visit Santa! Santa's nice! And so on and so forth.
I planned to hit the downtown Santa area on Sunday morning, see Santa, get pictures, go the Hall of Fame for crafts, and grab an early lunch at the Chocolate Cafe. As we were all getting ready I had the brilliant idea to have Mike check the times for Sundays. Thank goodness, since Santa doesn't come out until noon on Sunday, and then he's there until 4. So, slight change of plans, but I figure we're going to be flexible, and it's no problem! Let's cheerfully play some board games with Olivia, get Clara down for an early nap, and head out later.
Later comes. Everyone is fed, dressed, and happy. We make the 20 minute drive to downtown, find a spot to park, and unload the kids. We head over the couple of blocks to Santa's house. I see a line, but nothing too major. We walk by where Santa should be, but he's "on break." We get to the end of the line and there is an "elf" standing there. He says to me "Santa's house closes." I respond, "yes, at 4 right?" Now, just for reference, it is 3:15 right now, and there are maybe 10-12 families in front of us. Mr Elf responds, "yes, but the line is closed, I have to draw the line somewhere." Wha-huh? It's 45 minutes before closing time, your Santa is on break (lovely that he can't make 4 hours sitting on his butt) and you're not allowing any more people into line? Seriously? This is so symptomatic of what is wrong with South Bend. They try to draw people into downtown and then when we make the considerable effort to get there, they alienate us. I said a few things, but nothing too crazy since there were children present and we left. Olivia of course was crying since she couldn't understand why Santa wouldn't see her.
My fabulous Mike makes the quick decision to pull us into the Chocolate Cafe. We ordered chocolate and the lady at the counter asks us about Santa. I told her we weren't able to see him and why. I guess it could be worse though, since she tells us that another mother had come in the week before, she was allowed in line, but the other kids took too long, and since it was 4:02 when her son got to Santa, he didn't get to see him. Yes, they closed Santa with a little kids standing there. Wow, South Bend, wow.
After the fabulous Santa debacle, we went to the mall. There were probably 25 people in front of us at the mall, we got through with pictures in 45 minutes, and there was much rejoicing. I just told Olivia that Santa had to leave downtown to make it to the mall in time to see her, and she was fine with that. Next year, we're heading to the mall and skipping downtown. And the best part, Clara didn't cry....
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