bass pro santa

I took the kids to visit Santa and Colby's first question was, "Are you the real Santa?"  He explained that he was a helper, but that Santa gives a bit of his magic to ALL his helpers.  I was surprised with how much time he spent talking to them and it was nothing short of adorable. 

We had to make appointments again this year due to Covid, but the silver lining was that it wasn't busy.  I mean, how cute is this??  

He stopped talking to take the picture...

Then he went right back to chatting and asking them what they wanted for Christmas.  Brooke responded that she was hoping for a weighted hula hoop, and Colby said he wanted something to help him with baseball.  Santa's response was pretty adorable: "I assume you already have a bat and a glove, so I will look around my workshop and find the perfect thing that will help you improve in baseball." 

You know you're at the Bass Pro shop when the rest of your pictures involve rifles and four-wheelers, haha. 

Colby still had birthday money, so he bought himself a twirling rope and sheriff's badge.

We were heading out the door when I remembered that we hadn't taken a picture by the big tree.  We ALWAYS take a picture by that tree, so I herded the kids back inside.  Brooke rolled her eyes and was not into it, and since I was irritated at her reaction, I decided not to fight that battle and simply asked her to take a picture of Colby and I.  

Then people kept offering to take a picture with her in it, and I kept declining, but after the third offer, I accepted and she muttered the whole time we took the picture about how this was the worst day.  I know I take a lot of pictures, but I was so angry at the way she was behaving after having such a magical experience inside the shop.  Was it really such a big deal to walk inside and take one more picture?  I later realized that she might have also been feeling some jealousy that Colby was walking out with new toys, but still, I was frustrated.  We later apologized to each other for the way we handled the situation, so hopefully we both learned from it. 

But just looking at this picture, you would never know that everything wasn't sunshine and rainbows, right?  I guess that's why they say social media can be so dangerous.   People constantly post their "highlight reel" and you start to think that you're the only one that has a bad day or that has kids that are disrespectful.  It reminds me of the mantra I told myself frequently a few years ago:  "There's no such thing as perfect kids or perfect parents, only perfect moments."  

So I will forget about the imperfect moment at the end with my imperfect self and children, and choose to focus on the perfect moments that DID fill our hearts!