They shock me sometimes.

Last year I was trying to get them to wave hello to Santa from afar and they trembled nervously, clinging to me, asking to go home. They wanted to, but he was CLEARLY terrifying....

This year they dragged me over to him, forced me to wait in the longest line ever, endured the annoying little girls behind us in the princess costumes who kept trying to hug everyone/pet Asher's hair/and lay on my feet, and boldly marched up to Santa to tell him they wanted another train set so they could build the biggest track ever (he randomly said that to the school Santa too.... I quickly sent Thomas a text asking him to hurry and pick one up after work or Christmas would be ruined!), and to take sassy pictures with him. Asher, who still is not much for talking, simply pointed silently to the ice cream cone picture on his shirt when asked what he wanted for Christmas before casually mounting Santa's knee like he'd done this countless times before.

Normally I would never pay like $25 for a package of 80s themed, semi-blurry photos, but how could I look into the face of sass and elation and not cave? How I ask you?

Kids are awesome.