Meeting "Tanta"

I wasn't planning on taking Brooke to meet Santa her first Christmas (Christmas 2013).  Then, last minute, because I was fearful that I would regret it, we decided to go and get a picture with the guy in the red suit  Well, I am certainly glad that we did, but it was a very long wait for 10 seconds on his lap!  This year, I found out that Santa was arriving at the Bass Pro Shop on November 15th, so I figured we should go then and avoid the crowd.  We certainly didn't avoid any crowd, but it was a fun evening regardless.  

 We spent the afternoon with G + G Meador, then put Brooke in her pretty new Christmas dress and headed out into the cold and rainy night.  She was a bit unsure of the carousel, which I imagine was partially due to her slippery dress.

The Bass Pro shop has a pretty genius system for the Santa visits.  When you arrive, they give you a colored ticket that tells you what time you can line up.  You are then free to browse the shop, admire the displays of taxidermy, watch the fish, ride the carousel, play with toy trains and cars, color, etc. Brooke mostly wanted to watch the fish and roam freely around the store.  She seemed to understand that we were there to see Santa though, whom she lovingly called "Tanta".  I loved it!

Even at our designated "wait" time, we still seemed to wait forever!  We took turns waiting in line, and following Brooke around the store.  After about 45 minutes I think, we were up.  Brooke was happy to walk towards Santa, but as we got closer, she totally FROZE.  She didn't want to go any closer, which was kinda funny, but also sad.  I didn't want to scare her, but we needed that picture, haha.  She sat on his lap, but was very unsure about the encounter. We finally opted for a family picture, which I still love.