good santa, bad santa

we didn't think brynn was going to see a real amercian version of santa this year (she saw the german version aka st. nickelaus earlier this month) but at the last minute, steves work decided to have a really small children's party. so all this morning, i psyched brynn up and told her how awesome santa is and how she was going to get a present if she went up to him. i didnt expect her to sit on his lap at all, but she actually did! i also think it helped that there was a room full of children and parents encouraging her to go up. she was very reserved and cautious when she first approached santa, but did awesome! no tears this time! we ended up bringing a cute little peoples train, which was wrapped, that she opened while sitting on his lap. she was thrilled as shes been into trains. so thank you grandma and grandpa peterson for the awesome gift! she hasnt put it down since!

a few weeks ago while i was driving on base, i saw this hilarious stuffed "santa" mannequin chilling in a sleigh with the word "attack" sprayed on the front. (the base's motto is "seek, attack, destroy" so im sure it has something to do with that) i have always wanted to get a picture of it, but never had my camera on me when i see it. after this little christmas party, steve snuck away from work and we all ate at the chinese resturant on base. this weird santa mannequin is right across the street, so i convinced steve to go and take pictures with it after lunch. brynn was THRILLED that we were going to see another "santa" as she thought she would get another present...well, as my pictures below show, that wasnt the case. we are such mean parents! i was DYING from her expressions when she first layed eyes on this plastic stuffed santa! it took everything i had to not drop the camera as my whole body was shaking so hard from laughing! of corse all the people driving by were probably calling family advocacy to report us! mean ole petersons...

when i was uploading the pictures off my camera to the computer, the sequence shown below from brynn's reaction about made me pee my pants. poor brynn! i need to find something else to entertain me...

did anyone else take pictures with this thing?!