NOTE: A fairly bad picture of me but the best of a bad lot.
Today, Martin, Margaret, Peter and I took Mia for the Santa Train Ride. The train goes from Howell to Byron, and when it arrives in Byron, Santa gets on the train and visits the children.
We figured we had a fifty-fifty shot with Mia. Either she would think Santa was The Cool Guy In The Red Suit or she would be terrified. As soon as Santa got on the train, Mia was so excited she was jumping up and down. She repeated over and over what she was going to tell Santa she wanted for Christmas: "Toys, please!" in ever-increasing volume.
When Santa finally got to Mia, she instantly clammed up and her eyes got as round as saucers. No way was she getting on his lap. The Santa was very sweet and gentle and tried to coax her, but no luck. Santa did say to me, "God has blessed you very much."
A little strange, but okay, I'll take whatever blessings I can get.
There was another bit of drama on the Santa Train Ride. We had left the depot in Howell to change engines on the train. When we passed the depot again, the train stopped rather abruptly. Everyone was a bit puzzled until it became clear that a vehicle in the parking lot was on fire. Thankfully, it was in the covered bed of a pick up truck. A generator was to close to a cardboard box but that sucker was burning like crazy and it was scary for a moment.
I love the look on Mia's face - "I'm not so sure about this character." She's looking so grown up all of a sudden! But still goreous, of course. The Lovebug sat on Santa's lap at the photographer's yesterday, but it was just another lap, another person to pay attention to him. Should be interesting to see how he reacts next year. I love the Santa Train idea, maybe we'll get back to do that next year.
Posted by: Darr | December 18, 2005 at 09:10 PM
Yeah the Santa train was a good idea. Mia loves going for train rides, that will be her 4th or 5th one now. We usually do the Hamburg Train Days and we also did another one last year that went from Howell to Whitmore Lake. They are all hosted by Lake Central Train Tours and the same sad old GP pulls the trains but it's fun. Especially for the little ones. As you said Darr with your little one, Mia was fine on Santa's lap last year, but now she's a little more sophisticated and she just wasn't sure about him when he finally sat down beside her and Lisa. Oh well, better luck next year I guess.
Martin
Posted by: Martin | December 19, 2005 at 02:15 AM
Lisa, it sounds like you had a wonderful day. Maybe the Santa was an angel.
Posted by: Nadine | December 19, 2005 at 02:49 AM
Ha! She looks like Willis ("Whatchoo talkin' about?")!
Save that picture for the yearbook staff during her senior year in high school. She'll be all sophisticated, and there will be that pic in the yearbook!
Beautiful!
Posted by: vero | December 19, 2005 at 09:25 PM
I second Darr - the look on Mia's face is classic.
Doesn't it seem that this time of year flies by a whole Heck of a lot faster when we get to be adults?
Oh, to be a kid again.
Posted by: Jillian Staci | December 20, 2005 at 03:46 PM
Yep, that picture of Mia is one of those that is worth a thousand words!
Posted by: Rob | December 20, 2005 at 05:12 PM
I had to laugh tonight. I asked Mia, while she was playing with the "jingle bell" on the Christmas Tree that Santa gave her on the train, if she remembered talking to Santa. Her answer with her limited vocab: "red coat".
LOL...yes honey, red coat.
Martin
Posted by: Martin | December 20, 2005 at 10:51 PM