Our visit with Santa at Church!

Our church party is always lots of fun for the kids. We have a breakfast at the church and of course, Santa always appears! Steve was the "MC" for the event. Thanks Tosha and James for planning it!
When Santa appeared, Taylor, Jessica and their friend Aly went and got in line to see him. As the line moved forward, only Jessica moved forward. She sat on Santa's lap, no problem.
Aly and Tay, who were holding hands, stayed about the same spot. Soon, they couldn't help but move forward. But neither stayed in line. When they got to the front, they sat down on the floor with me instead (I was taking pictures of Santa with some of our good friends' kids). I asked Taylor if she was going to sit on his lap. She shook her head no. I let it go and didn't push.

Alyssa is at the age, where she isn't sure what to believe about Santa. My answer is always that if she doesn't believe, he won't bring her any presents and that Santa is the spirit of Christmas - giving. She doesn't believe that Santas at the malls or parties are real. But after some convincing she still sat on his lap.
Since the party, we have discussed it several times. Alyssa does believe the "dress up" Santas are some of his helpers. She found out this particular Santa is family to someone in our ward, so she said he couldn't be one of his helpers. I pointed out that Santa hires extra helpers during the holiday season. And some of those helpers are people who do normal stuff the rest of the year and even live near us, but just help Santa on weekends or evenings. She seems good with that. So another year and the belief lives on!

As the line started to wind down to sit on Santa's lap, Taylor, who had been sitting close to me since she sat down, leaned up to me and asked, "Will Santa bring me the Barbie Diamond Castle?" I said, "No. He doesn't know what you want. You need to sit on his lap and tell him." She looked at me with absolute terror on her face. But she said, "Will you go with me?" I agreed and got at the back of the line with her. She let several other kids get in front of us and when he was done seeing EVERYONE else, she finally stepped up and sat on his lap. She quietly told him she wanted Barbie Diamond Castle and then looked at me with this look of "can I get down now?" I snapped a couple of pictures and she was out of there. I was really proud of her though!