A trip to see Santa

This week I took the kids to visit the friendly local mall Santa.  It's always been an experience trying to determine Meghan's mood and approach to Santa, and now I have two different ones to contemplate...  Meghan this year walked right up to Santa with a little prompting from my part and told him she was hoping for a Tinkerbell costume.  Thankfully we have dispensed with the desire for 'real wings that can fly'.  Even though she told us numerous times that Santa and his elves can make anything, we have informed her that his presents have to be real.  Anyway,  she had a nice little chat with Santa Claus being that there was no one in line (a miracle).  Talked about how hard she's been working in school reading, etc.  Nathan on the other hand was not overly fond of Santa.  I tried my best to sit on the stool while Meghan was chatting away and let Nathan warm up to the fellow, but he would have none of it.  Finally when someone did show up in line and the employees were indicating it was time for our photo, I sat him down in Santa's lap (er... the stranger in a big red suit), and Nathan proceeded to scream.  I indicated for them to just take the photo, screamer and all because that's how it is this year, and next year who knows, he may refuse to sit in his lap as Meghan did at 2 years old.  So, here you have it, this year's Santa photo.  Of course, our visit was not complete until the friendly photo employee loudly proclaimed to all in earshot range, after that Santa looks so thirsty he could die.  I nearly fainted and was glad that Meghan did not hear it and could not yet spell d-i-e because I turned to the lady and tried to nicely say (spell what she had said because she had forgotten how she phrased it) she needed to watch what she said around the kids because who knows what nightmares might ensue if Meghan thought Santa was going to die.  Geesh... and I didn't even get a free photo.  Parched Santa did get a drink of water though.