We took Anya to see Santa on Saturday. The day before and all that morning we kept asking her what she was going to say to Santa. First she said she wanted to ask Santa for a doggie, “and a bowl for food and a little ball that I can throw for the doggie to go get.” Then she wanted a doll. The last time we asked, she wanted a firetruck. When we were finally there in front of Santa, Anya froze up. She hid behind us and didn’t want to go in the room he was in. We tried bribing her with a candy cane, but she doesn’t like candy canes this year. I have to admit, the Santa was a bit scary. His eyes were smiley, but he didn’t say, “Ho Ho Ho,” or talk about Rudolph or anything. I tried to engage him in some small talk about how I wanted a working dishwasher for Christmas and were the reindeer behaving, but I think he was listening to the game on a tiny radio hidden in his beard.

We finally got Anya to sit with Santa by having all of us sit with Santa. She still wouldn’t talk to him, but we got a picture. It’s not the picture I’m going to show you because I am too lazy to scan that photo.