The Singing Bears and Santa

Today we went to Richland Mall with Carson and her kids, Eme, Cal, and Will, to watch the Bears sing. The "Bears" are famous with our friends in Columbia. They are a group of singing bears that perform for about 30 minutes or so on top of every hour. The Richland Mall is usually quiet and pretty empty, but at Christmas we all head over there and let the kids see the bears...The idea has really caught on. It is usually packed with moms and kids. There are probably 20 or so bears in the chorus. Bess loves them. There is fake snow all around them that the kids like to play with. We watched the Bears for a little while and then Carson and her kids went to wait in line to see Santa.

I had not even thought of seeing Santa today because Bess does NOT like any type of character, inluding Santa. Bess and Frank were not wearing Christmas outfits, Frank's outfit really wasn't even that clean (at least for a picture with Santa), and I didn't have much in the way of snacks, etc., and it was after 5. Well...Bess loves to do what Eme and her brothers do so we went over and joined them in line. We waited and waited and I was thinking the whole time that we'd wait for 30 minutes or more and get up there and turn around and go home. I asked Bess about 10 times if she really wanted to see Santa or if she wanted to go on home. She said over and over that she wanted to see him, even though last week she wanted nothing to do with him.

It was finally our turn. Frank was fussy...He did not want to be in the stroller so I was holding him (not easy at 5:45 with no snacks or toys). I was not expecting this to go well. I expected Bess to start crying the minute we walked up. Richland Mall does Santa a little different than most malls. You stand outside Santa's house, and an elf comes to get you when it's your turn. When the elf came to get us, she took us in to Santa's room, but he was not there. The elf helped me put the kids on Santa's work bench and started playing with them and making them laugh. I was standing behind Frank and after a minute or so Santa quietly came out and stood behind the kids, and then they motioned for me to move to the side. They started taking pictures of the kids with Santa and they did not even realize Santa was behind them. So far so good...

Bess looked back after a second and I thought she was either going to fall off the bench or jump off, but she really was very calm...Not thrilled at first, but she didn't cry. Frank was fine, but he's still so young to know what's going on. They took some more pictures and Bess really seemed okay with everything. This was a HUGE step. I could not believe it. You'd have to know her around characters to understand how big this was!

Then after the pictures, I held Frank and Santa talked to Bess for a minute. He asked her what she wanted for Christmas and she told him she wants a Snow White Costume (She has a Snow White top and skirt, but said she needs a dress, too!). Santa asked her if she'd leave some cookies for him and she said that we would. Afterwards, I looked at the pictures and they turned out great!

I never would have guessed Bess would have visited Santa this year. I was very proud of her!