Let me preface this by saying Angelina doesn't really "know" Santa Claus (Pere Noel). Not for any philosophical reason, we've just never gotten 'round to talking about him. Maybe that makes us lame-o parents, but in any case, Santa Claus is a foreign concept. Of course, if I thought threats of Santa not coming would help her behave, I'd be talking about Santa left and right....
So on to why I love Lavaca. This wasn't actually in the 'hood, but close enough to ride our bikes, so it counts as a reason to love it. The city hosted a Winter Holiday Spectacular! at HemisFair Park. Santa was there for pictures (and no waiting in line), there was a snow slide, then in the evening Movies by Moonlight (aka Slab Cinema aka Angela and Rick, our neighbors) showed "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," "A Christmas Story," and "It's a Wonderful Life" on the lawn. One of the great things about San Antonio was that it was 75F (24C) during the day and only a little cooler once the sun went down. Great for watching outdoor movies! (Not so great for snow...the environmentalist in me cringes at the idea of trying to create a "Winter Wonderland" when it's in the 70sF, but the mom in me admits it was kind of cool...) Of course, today it's 46F (8C) and super windy. Then later in the week it'll be in the 80s again.
So back to Santa. Angelina is normally quite happy to talk to any random person. Wherever we go she says "Hi" to everyone she sees. Apparently the big red suit and white beard threw her off and my arguments of "He's just like Opa" didn't fly. We walked up slowly, she ran behind me and clutched my pants, afraid to even look. Santa was wonderful and chatted with her and did everything to make her comfortable, but she wasn't having it. We stuck around for awhile, she took my camera (as usual), and started taking pictures. So we now have about 20 pictures of Santa, and some of Santa with a little boy named Raymond, to whom Angelina kept saying "Smile!" as she clicked away, but none of her with Santa. She even told the other kids to go sit with Santa. But not her.
To be honest I'm kind of glad she doesn't know to "ask Santa" for presents. But I don't know how long that will last. For now, I think she'd be happy with a huge bowl of tortellinis.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Our visit with Santa and why I love Lavaca, part XIV
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2 comments:
This is the first year at age four S has made the Santa connection. It has a lot to do with when they start socializing and at school they spend a lot of time on it. I've realized that as parents we aren't the Santa catalyst because we never really talk about him!
I thought maybe she'd get some at daycare, but I guess not. Not that I'm complaining....
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