"Oh by gosh by golly, it's time for mistletoe and holly..."

My sweet Husband made me a couple of Christmas cd's with music by Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra two of my favorite singers of all times. One of the songs begins as above and I have had it stuck in my head for weeks now. Truth be told, it has been "time for mistletoe and holly" for a while but I have been pretending that it is "so far away". Since I have procrastinated in every way blogging has not been my priority for the past few weeks. But I had to tell you all about Bunny's very first experience with Santa Claus.

Daddy Dearest and I got REALLY excited about Christmas a little early this year. And by REALLY excited I mean, we had the tree up, decorated and stocking "hung by the chimney with care" by the middle of November. Now, I realize that isn't anything compared to some of those that begin decorating their home with lights in OCTOBER but it is early for us. That being said, that decorated Christmas tree sure looked bare without ANY presents under it. So, I had to get in gear and begin shopping for those "treasures" that all the shoppers hurry home with as the song says. In all the hustle and bustle we made our first trip to see Santa Claus and went to Toy's R Us so Bunny could "see" all the toys.

Now, speaking from a first time parent/ultra procrastinator's perspective...I do not ever, EVER want to step foot in that place again in the month of December! There were people EVERYWHERE!!!! Kid's running around, kid's hanging out of the cart/buggy, kid's throwing unbelievable fits for a toy that Santa was PROBABLY bringing thing anyway! And I am sure there were Parents dashing down the isles knowing that their kids were a ticking time bomb, waiting to go off. You know how it is...your child is great for the moment but you know it is only a matter of time. I may not know about the kid's running around but I KNOW about the ticking time bomb. Sometimes you can almost hear each tick, tick, tick. I have to say that Bunny did great! But there is plenty of time for the above examples to be our child.
This is Bunny's outfit that Mrs. Tyler gave her! From the moment I held the outfit up she was all grins and wanted the pom poms in her mouth. She also loved the fur trim! She was the most adorable thing in it!

Anyway...We went to a nearby mall to visit Santa. We waited in line for about 45 minutes. There were many families there with multiple kids in each. They all had their turn climbing into Santa's lap and telling him what their little hearts desired most for Christmas. As Bunny's turn drew closer she decided she was hungry. After fixing (yes, that is a technical term in the South) a bottle she drank happily until there was one family of three kids left in front of us. YEA!

Then it happened...that all too familiar smell that inevitably comes at the most inopportune times. Yes, Bunny had made a job. Thankfully Daddy Dearest was there to "save" our place in line and we made a dash (kind of like the parents in Toy's R Us) to the restroom. I was worried that Bunny would cry when we sat her with Santa or have a fit (which she does periodically believe it or not) but I never even THOUGHT about this happening. Makes for a fun story though. We ended up letting the family behind us go before to make sure we would have enough time for the bathroom trip.

Bunny was getting tired at this point. You might not can tell from the pictures but I thought she just might snuggle up with Santa and take a nap. This too had never crossed my mind as a scenario that might take place. Below are some pictures of her sitting in Santa's lap. She couldn't take her eyes off of him at first. It was so funny! Even Santa got a good chuckle out of it.

So then the big guy took out the trusty book to read. She loved it! And it worked...

long enough for them to snap a picture, then it was back to Santa...

Then the day's business seemed to have hit all at once and I thought she was going to go to sleep right there.

That is until they gave her the balloon. This is Bunny's very FIRST balloon. She didn't even smile like this while sitting in Santa's lap!! Oh my goodness, she absolutely LOVED it!!! I mean, just look at that face. It says it all! And now, a week later and considerably smaller than it started out, the balloon isn't too far away from where ever it is she finds herself in our house.

She would talk to it and sing to it and about it! She was enamoured with it!!!

And that was our trip to see Santa Claus. It was exciting for us to see Bunny experience that! We are so looking forward to Christmas morning with her!