Santa Fun

Almost every family I know has at least one good 'visiting Santa Claus' story. Our story of Maelyn's first visit with Santa Claus is no exception...

We headed to the mall with Nancy yesterday morning -- couldn't believe how cold it was! After all the snow that has fallen over the past few days, we are now well into full snowsuit mode...

We explained to Maelyn that she would be visiting with Santa Clause -- but she wasn't very impressed with the idea.

We thought that it would be a good idea to let Maelyn see Santa and watch the activity going on below. We hoped that she would see the happy and smiling faces of the other children and decide that visiting Santa was a good idea...

We had so much gear with us, including the stroller, that we decided to take the elevator to get to Santa. We loaded into the elevator with another family and then 'kerplunk!' Yup -- the elevator stopped halfway between floors! We were all a little shocked and in disbelief, but after a few minutes of waiting, we realized that the elevator wasn't going anywhere. We pushed the emergency button and an automated voice told us to 'stay calm and that people have been informed of the issue.'

Luckily the elevator had glass sides, which helped us to feel less confined. It also made it easier for mall patrons to gawk at us while we waited patiently for help to arrive.

Thankfully we were stuck in the elevator with a very nice family who also has kids. Jonas (22 months) and Lennon (3 months) were accompanied by their mom and grandma -- and we all got to know each other a little better that morning! Especially after we spent more than an hour stuck in the elevator...

Thankfully I had brought quite a bit of food with me that morning, thinking we would be heading to Nancy's house after the mall and needing a lot of snacks for Maelyn. We passed out the snacks to the kids and then entertained them with Christmas carols, the few toys we had and with watching and waving to the people in the mall.

911 was called and we waited and waited for help to arrive. We were all relieved when we saw the firefighters arrive...

We finally received the good news that we would be leaving the elevator shortly....

They pulled the elevator back up to the top floor, very slowly, and the doors were finally opened...

And we were greeted by a crowd of firefighters and mall personnel....

The firefighters were asking if everyone was okay and our new friends made the good point that the kids had behaved and weren't screaming -- so we were fine!

The mall manager came over and kept apologizing for our predicament. He said that he wanted to make it up to us, so he gave us gift certificates for the mall -- at first he offered us a free lunch, but we just wanted to get home with the kids for lunch and nap times. He then found out that we were there to visit with Santa Claus and he told us that we wouldn't have to wait in line and that we could have any package of pictures we would like -- what a great deal! :)

We finally headed to our original destination -- Old Saint Nick. Our new friends got a family picture taken and it turned out beautifully! A great way to commemorate an interesting experience...

Maelyn, however, did not think that visiting Santa was a good idea at all. We got within feet of the area where Santa Claus was and she started shaking her head and clinging to me, her legs and arms wrapped tightly around me. I figured that we would give it a try, so we went to sit beside Santa.

He tried to win Maelyn over with a candy cane, but nothing seemed to work. I asked the ladies to just take the shot -- I didn't mind a screaming Santa photo.

The package of pictures we got also came with a stuffed animal and of course, she chose the cat.

In the end, we had a very interesting morning and we even made new friends -- the free stuff helped to make the day that much better as well! We couldn't stop laughing about what we had been through -- what a story to tell Maelyn about her first trip to visit with Santa Claus.