Santa Baby

I did it! Today, I packed up the kiddos and we went to the mall to sit on Santa's lap. Well, first, we went to Chuck-E-Cheese for the boys' monthly homeschool incentive. I have that place down to a science. First, print out the coupon for "buy 60 tokens get 40 free". Next, go in the MORNING. No one is there. It's like a ghost town. The place is cleaned and all of the winter germs that can survive for hours outside the body have all died the horrible death they deserve. The other thing that is great about going in the morning is that, well, you don't eat pizza in the morning. We bought the refillable plastic cups on our first venture, so when we go all we pay for is the $15 for 100 tokens. Period. Not a bad deal for a great school incentive.

Okay, so I said monthly incentive, truth be told, we missed last month. This was the first time we have gone when Ivey was a walking, running, opinionated toddler. After I fed her breakfast, she was down and running all over the place. The only real problem with this was that she thought she was a skeeball. I kept having to drag her down the skeeball ramp by her feet. Beyond that, she was great. She found the big animatronic Chuck-E-Cheese, waved and danced her little tush off. Not only was she not afraid, she wasn't shy. She shook her groove thing all over that place.

When we head to Chuck-E-Cheese, and interesting (and predictable) thing happens. Asa spends all of his tokens in a fury. He can blow through all 50 in 10 minutes flat. Addison, on the other hand, is very careful about where he puts him tokens. He doesn't always base his decision on token to ticket ratio. Sometimes he opts for the "video game" style games that don't pay off at all. It always takes him at least an hour to go through his tokens. In the end, each boy ends up with about the same amount of tickets. Addison usually chooses to spend a small amount and save the rest to add to his stash for next time... trying to get the bigger better prize. Asa spends more and saves less, but is learning for Addison's example. I say nothing. Not my tokens, not my tickets... and by speaking I would wreck a perfectly wonderful learning experience.

On this trip, Asa blew through his tokens in a flash and then got to do something straight up Asa's alley. Because we were there in the morning, there was a man working on one of the pinball machines. He had the glass top removed and he was making adjustments and such. Asa had a chair and was standing right beside him, watching and helping when asked. The man showed him what he was doing and let him try things out to see if things needed further adjustment. Asa was in heaven.

After we left, we headed to the mall for Santa pictures. I had clothes in the car, changed everyone in a flash, and had a pretty darn successful meeting with the big man. Ivey was nervous at first but quickly warmed up. It helped that I was behind the camera, jumping around like a crazed lunatic. After many shots like this, I realized that all of my attention was focused on Ivey. The boys were off in space... with nervous expressions that screamed, "I'm on someone lap... I don't know this guy... How much longer do we have to sit like this." After redirecting my attention to all, we made eye contact with all kids involved and I am totally pleased with the shot!

Asa told Santa that he wanted a remote controlled mouse (which he invented in his head... and has been asking for for over a year now) and Addison told him that he would like the new Star Wars Lego game and a particular Star Wars Lego set. Santa said he'd see what he could do. Now, they just have to be good for two more weeks!