Holiday activity #4: meeting Santa

Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and I am the perfect case in point. Liam spent some time with gramma and grampa earlier this week, and Mallory and I engaged in some holiday activities, such as shopping for the last of our gifts, starting on the gift wrapping... and having some time to kill that afternoon,venturing down to the mall to meet Santa. I was torn between doing this as a joint photo with Liam and doing it alone, and in the end, alone won out. She had a beautiful little outfit on - a raspberry red velvet dress and matching cardigan, candy cane striped leggings, and her shearling boots. Besides wanting to show off the outfit in the photo, I also thought that Baby's First Christmas was worthy of a photo of its own. And I figured it would be easier to get a good smile out of them one at a time rather than together.

Of course I came home disappointed. The photo, taken by a local portrait studio, is TERRIBLE. They always are, aren't they? - at least, here they are - and yet I keep going back, year after year, expecting something to change for the better. The setup is nice but the photo is totally blurry and you can't see half of what she's wearing. She didn't cry - at least, not initially - she did get spooked when Santa shook his bells in her face when he said goodbye. The scan here is a little inferior to the original, but I'm telling you - the original sucks, big time.

No more trips to the mall. No, really, I mean that. This weekend we have a Breakfast with Santa event and in a few weeks we have our company's children's Christmas party. Both should be opportunities for a photo with Santa, taken by me with my own camera. And I'm telling you... I'm sure I can do much, much better than this. And it won't cost me $6.99 to do it.