Miss Rylie has been pretty much back to her normal happy self after her bout of illness. We did enjoy a few extra days of LONG frequent naps, but of course, all good things come to an end. The surf hasn’t been great, and there has been a couple days of rain, which to dry-like-toast California, is the best thing ever. My spin instructor only played songs with a rain theme at our class the other day. That’s how crazy and infrequent rain is. They also get all excited about how “slippery” it is “out there on those off ramps, so be careful out there!!!”
The morning of the rain, Josh was at home with Rylie. Since she decided to nap early, I headed over to the Westfield Mall just across the highway to kill some time after my spin class… actually, to enjoy some time at the mall, alone. But really, we try not to sneak in and out of the trailer too much when she’s sleeping, because its loud and the whole thing shakes pretty good when you go down the stairs (possibly because we still have those fancy replacement scissor jacks just sitting under the trailer in an unopened box!!). So, it was that or sit outside in the car, or on the wet picnic table in a cold sweat.
Anyway, Macy’s was a dive and badly in need of reno’s, but onward I did a loop of the mall to see what was up. I had heard this was where the Mall Santa resided at this time of year, so I wandered around to find him. Turns out he was alone with his two elves. Not a child in sight! Gasp. This actually happens? Not in Calgary, not in December, I say. Which, actually is perfect, because standing in line for an hour to see Santa so your baby can scream and cry and hate you for doing so seems excessive.
The next day, after nap we made our way back to said mall and said lonely Santa. We walked right up, and saw the big man. No line. Rylie smiled when she saw him, as we’ve shown her Santa in pictures and books in preparation, then as we got closer she held tighter and tighter and buried her little head in my shirt. We were not going to get a good lone shot of her and Jolly Guy, so we opted for a family shot first, then attempt some classic, yet teary mugs just to see if we could get a great one.
I crept towards Santa slowly with her facing me, then I pried her little hands away just for a second and plopped her on his lap and jumped out of the way… Just for a second, and long enough for a pretty fantastic “escaping” baby shot trying to jump out of his arms. Quickly, I grabbed her up, and gave her a big hug, hoping it wasn’t too traumatic for her. I’ll be honest, she did better at the urgent care with the urine test than she did sitting on Santa’s lap. Gotta love her. Sadly, we didn’t end up using the solo shot because we had to choose just one.
Overall, the experience was mixed. Great for not having to wait in line, and impressive that his beard was real. On the downside, we didn’t hear a single HO HO HO from the quiet, but friendly “Santa” guy. No elves dressed up either, just a couple of ladies dressed in black pants and white tops looking like they were on their way to a ham dinner. No fantastic little Santa’s village like they have at Southcentre Mall, but I guess that’s why no one was flocking in droves to come for the real Santa Adventure. It was just a Mall Santa. And that’s how our picture turned out. The end.