The List.

Christmas is in 5 days. FIVE. I cannot believe it. No, I am not completely done shopping- but I am only a few gift cards away from done. Well...I thought I was anyway. I thought we were finished shopping for Clark last month. He would never really tell us anything specific he wanted for Christmas other than EVERYTHING he sees on TV. Nothing really stuck out and he does not have a favorite of anything. He plays with different things all the time and is not really obsessed with anything these days. So we have picked up things here and there that I thought he would like, that would last and that did not have 1,000,000 pieces or parts. We THOUGHT we were done. We thought that until today. Today we finally made it out to see Santa and Mrs. Claus. Clark has seen this Santa each year and we nearly missed him this year, but we heard they were going to be at a local, family owned pharmacy so you had better believe we were there. Before we left Clark wanted to make a list to give to Santa. So we did.  He told me what to write and I did and then he copied. He was very determined and it was beyond adorable.
Here is the finished product:

Translation:
"Dear Santa,
I would like a power ranger toy, a ninja toy and Spiderman shoes.
Love, Clark"

I mean how cute is that? Upside down w's, backwards d's and giant dots on the i's and all. I just love it. He read it to Santa and then thank goodness Santa told us he had it memorized and he gave us the list back! I get to keep it forever. Not sure if it is normal to be this excited about a list to Santa, but I just love seeing his little handwriting. I just want to frame it.

On another note- we have ZERO of these items in our stockpile. I am not a fan of characters on shoes or clothing so I do not think Santa will be picking up the Spiderman shoes, but I guess he might be on the lookout for the ninjas or power rangers. Nothing fancy but maybe a few to tuck in the stocking. We shall see.

Speaking of the Santa visit, Shep was not a fan this time and we had to do a redo session because the first time he was crying so hard I got ZERO pictures trying to console him. I was doing this solo as Stuart was out of town for work and it was not that simple to wrangle them all into the lap of the big guy, get Clark to talk, and keep Shep breathing because he was crying so hard. So we stuck around until there was no line and tried again so I could capture a few on my phone. I could not even begin to use my good camera. They did have a photographer and I hope that he got some good ones. I got a few and everyone got out alive. I might have been a sweaty mess once we finally got into the car and everyone buckled into carseats, but I did my best. We even had to explain to Santa about Shepard touching Walker since Clark was beside himself and beyond upset that Walker would lose his magic. Santa reassured him that it was okay and that Shepard was a baby and did not know any better. It was the best news Clark heard all week.

Here are a few I snapped on my phone during the madness:

Five days people! Enjoy each one.