Meeting Santa & Playdates

We met up some some friends at Bass Pro for a little "play date." We really were there to meet Santa...

However, we decided it was the best place to take kids for a play date! They can look at the fish, play 

checkers, test out the tents, shoot the guns, play with all the toys, and the best part is you don't have a messy house when it's over! We even ate dinner there and the boys had a blast!

Our ultimate intent was to meet Santa and thankfully we pulled that off too! Ayden thought he was pretty cool and didn't mind at all. Peyton, however, she did NOT want to meet him.

Hayden could have cared less, someone was holding him and that's all he really cares about.

Hudson, well he worked up to it. When we first got in line he told us that he did not want to see Santa. Hudson is our little worrywart so we calmed him down by telling him that Hayden wanted to see Santa so that's why we were in line. He told us a few more times and thankfully the line was short or he might have lost it. There is a big train display next to the line so he was pretty intent on watching the train so his mind was a little distracted from Santa. When we got up there he watched Santa hold Hayden, but immediately began to lose it because he did NOT want to go. Daddy took him to sit next to Santa and they started talking. Santa offered him candy in exchange for a picture and for some reason he decided that might be ok. He calmed down, but was still a little uptight about the whole thing. After he got off Santa's lap he told him that there was no reason to be scared because he was a nice guy and then they chatted about what Hud wanted for Christmas. This time his answer was a Slinky dog-there is one on a shelf on the way to Santa and he had just picked it up to look at it. He really just wants anything to do with Toy Story right now.

After lots of playing, the big Santa experience, dinner and shopping we hit the road for some Christmas lights. The weather wasn't bad so we decided to get out and walk. It last all of 2.3 seconds. Someone was hungry...But we had just enough time to snap this cute picture before we parted ways with our friends. We will definitely be making another trip back to the lights so Hud can enjoy it more. Needless to say, both boys were crashed out in the back seat the whole way home. And the perfect end to our evening-The Duck Dynasty Christmas episode. Life is good.