Long gone are the days of the Beaumont, TX Santa experience where the "long" line lasts twenty minutes. We saw the Northern VA mall Santa on a Monday night at 7pm and waited for TWO hours. Seriously!? Who goes to see Santa on a school night during the dinner hour!? Besides us, of course. But no one else was supposed to have that same idea. Mall Santa Fail... It was painful. Mostly for Mike who hates doing any sort of chaotic activity after work much less waiting for two hours - in a mall - with tired kids.
But as we got in the back of the line, the family right behind us happened to be my girlfriend and Henry's preschool buddy, Kyle! That added two additional iPhones, an iPad, and friends to the wait -- and things were much better!
Shooting under fluorescent light is truly difficult. It doesn't exactly make your subject look pretty or their skin tones natural. Add in the winter motif with blue and purple spotlights and man, it's just rough for a lady who refuses to pop up the flash!! But it was a fun challenge! I also took the opportunity to try and get the boys to take "blowing snow" photos with all the fake flakes that were lying around. Ok, well they weren't lying around. The snow was technically part of the decor behind velvet ropes that I crossed to scoop up. I'm such a photography rebel!
Henry did not quite understand what to do...
Henry's preschool buddy, Kyle, was wonderful to have in line with us. Henry and he found lots to do together -- like, climb. Everything. Kyle's oldest sister is just about Charlie's age so they played on all the gadgets while being cool big kids.
How cute are these boys!?
After an hour and a half in line, we finally made it to the snow room where the kids get to run around while snowflakes come down out of the ceiling. Talk about terrible lighting. It was literally BLUE inside with a giant, awful spotlight in the middle. Editing was brutal attempting to get their skin to look a little more human and a lot less Smurf.
And finally, we saw Santa. Charlie was stoked. He knew exactly what he was going to ask for and had been rehearsing the list so he wouldn't forget anything. Mike and I really weren't sure how well Henry would do with seeing Santa this year. Last year, he screamed in terror. But... as they tend to do, he'd grown up a bit and better understood the concept -- Santa was bringing toys. That seemed to be motivation enough to just go for it. He climbed right up there with his big brother and started telling Santa that he wanted Team Umizoomi toys. It was precious. My kids. Ah! Swoon! I love them so.
They both smiled and looked at the camera. How boring! But cute!!
They both smiled and looked at the camera. BORING?!?!?! Rub it in why don't you.
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