Santa

Yesterday we happened to see Santa. Preschool/joyschool was canceled, so we went to discovery gateway, and Santa was in the lower entrance. My son's eyes lit up when he saw him. Then when I suggested we go see him, his eyes changed to fear and he quickly started climbing the stairs away from Santa.
After our visit to the museum we saw Santa again. I even convinced my son to sit next to Santa on the couch. Santa interpreted this as lifting J on his lap, I knew this concerned my non physical touch child, but he went with the flow. Santa did look pretty good, he had a real beard and all that jazz, and he was naturally older and portly, so I wish I could say I have a picture of my children on Santa. But alas I couldn't justify spending "Starting at $13" for a picture of a crying baby, and a stoic boy.
Also unfortunately looks was all this Santa had. He asked my boy what he wanted for Christmas, and my boy said I sent you a letter with everything I want. When my boy went off from the script Santa couldn't handle it, and even with my translation, looked at me puzzled, then responded we'll see what I can do, and quickly placed J back on the ground.
The romanticism for me died at the point, luckily my child is three, it didn't even phase him. My child is at a fun age, he is old enough to get it, but not question it. When he saw Santa sitting on the purple couch, it was really Santa, and well that was also super fun for me as the mom.
My daughter thought he was pretty cool looking too, until I got close enough to convince J to sit down, in which case she decided she was dangerous close, she quickly turned way, and clasped on to me for dear life. Luckily for her, her mom is cheap and wasn't about to pay $13 to torture her.