Cookies and Crayons

It’s that time of year again — buying Christmas presents, singing Christmas carols, and making the annual trek to glare suspiciously at Santa Claus. With Mum and Connie off on their own shopping expedition (and Connie still a wee bit young for Santa), Dougie put on his new Merry Christ-Moose sweater and made the trek with Dad to the mall.

Longtime readers will remember Dougie’s previous run-ins with Santa in 2007 (age 1) and 2008 (age 2). But I had high hopes this year. Dougie has been way more into Christmas this year (as demonstrated by the tree decorating and gingerbread train making in previous posts — still need to capture his “carols” on video — including his rousing rendition of “Jingie All The Why”). He has a decent understanding of Santa, knows his name, and generally thinks he’s an all-around jolly dude.

When we got in line, I pointed to the big chair and Dougie excitedly said “SANTA!” I told him that he had to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. He wasn’t sure on this front but he had some ideas (Clifford, trains, Pokey Little Puppy…) and generally seemed OK.

Then — when it was Dougie’s turn — we got “Stone Face Dougie”. No smiles, no giggling, no nothing. Couldn’t even get him to say “cheese” for the camera (which works on him now — though sometimes we need to modify this to “grilled cheese”).

So — the nice folks in Santa’s workshop got a picture of Santa reading “Twas The Night Before Christmas” to Dougie.

Not bad this year — next year, we’re keeping our fingers cross for an actual smile!