Santa (Dennis)

Last year, Eric found Santa Dennis--who saved us from desperation. We (purposely) waited until the weekend before Christmas do to pictures, but when Amara caught a Roseola bug, we had to postpone. Well, all the Santa's had gone back to the North Pole, except Santa Dennis. He came to mom and dad's for a special visit--one we'll always remember with Grandma Lucy.

This year, Santa Dennis came in his usual full glory--and as Amara had learned about "Sanaa" and seen many pictures, we didn't know how she'd feel about the real guy (he is kind of larger than life, and certainly much bigger than an ornament or a card).

At first, she was happy to see him, but from a distance... We tried seeing if she was interested in sitting on his lap, but she wasn't interested at all; however, she did quickly warm up to him, and in no time was sharing toys, giving him a sucker, and high-fiving, and waving bye!

Santa brought a very special present, a wooden toy truck--that we hope she'll have for many years to come. She sat with him as she opened it and then immediately jumped down, to start playing with and sharing her toys.

Although we didn't get a traditional "posed" picture, we all really had a great time, and hopefully she'll look forward to her visit from Santa every year now.