yes, virginia, there really is a santa claus.....

and he's hanging out at macy's on a friday night with NO ONE waiting to see him!!

it's never been a big deal of mine to take our kids to see santa. i guess maybe when they're a bit older they might ask to go see him, but for now i think the season is about so many other things. the first (and i think only) time our kids sat on santa's lap was when greta was two at christkindl market. on her own, she noticed santa up on the stage getting set up to greet kids and she just walked up there and sat down on his lap. it was so uncharacteristic of greta....and hilarious.

this year, we were walking from fountain square to redsfest at the convention center when we spied santa in the window of macy's. with one child on his lap and no children in line. so we jumped at the chance. i sorta felt like we HAD to go see santa. the kids were a tiny bit hesitant but were pretty okay with it. they just kept staring at him. greta asked me, "is that the REAL santa?!" selma, of course, freaked out. i knew that would happen, but i wanted her in the photo.

both kids froze when santa asked what they wanted for christmas. all otto could come up with was that he wanted a jumprope. and greta said she wanted a music box. so then when santa asked them if they wanted anything else, otto said a music box and greta said a jumprope. easy time at the hansbauers, santa!!
i think there favorite part of seeing santa was the candy cane he gave them, which we enjoyed later with our movie and popcorn.