As a parent, it’s easy to get an idea in your head about how things might go, or how you’d like them to go. I see it a lot this time of year when everyone is booking family photos and thinking of upcoming holiday cards. For example I might think that if I buy matching pjs and book photos with a Santa early in November, we could have a cute photo for our card. I might even think I’m being flexible when I consider the possibility that the baby would be crying, because that might make a funny card.
But the thing that I’ve learned, is that it’s important to listen to the tiny humans, and remember that they don’t exist to fulfil my ideas. They’re three very different people who all have their own ideas about how things should go. And every once in a while, the universe really makes sure I understand that.
Remember those matching pjs? Well E took one look at them and refused to wear them. My kids always surprise me. E might be my child that fights me the least on what to wear, but every once in a while it happens and he will have very strong feelings, completely surprising me. As the parent, I can’t change his reaction, I can only change mine. I can choose to either fight him to wear the matching pjs and try to save my vision of the perfect photo, or I can pivot and offer him something else. And realize there’s nothing wrong with him wearing something different. Years from now when we look back on these pictures and he asks why G and F have matching pjs and he doesn’t, we can laugh tell him because he had very strong opinions about what he wanted to wear that morning, and we trusted him.
The universe wasn’t quite done throwing curveballs at us, though. When we got there, I made the decision to have everyone mask up. We’d booked the first appointment of the day, as I usually do when we’ve done things like this in the past - the thought being that we’ll have the least amount of exposure that way. We also knew both Santa and Mrs Clause were vaccinated, and no one else was in the storefront where this was taking place. So all of this combined was making me feel pretty comfortable to not have masks during the photos, but it still felt weird to walk into a building without masks. I don’t remember the last time we’ve done that, so we wore masks as we walked inside.
But when it came time to take pictures, I asked E & G if they wanted to take their masks off, and they both said no. I tried again a few minutes later after we’d taken a few photos, but they still were adamant - the masks stayed on. And can you blame them? We’ve spent so long teaching them to wear masks inside when we’re not at home in order to stay safe. They know how to live in this pandemic better than most adults. So we went with it. Is there really a better memento for this pandemic? There will be a time when this pandemic is a distant memory, but we’ll be able to look back at these pictures and see E & G, expert mask wearers!
So while it’s not the picture I had in my mind when the day started, I love it all the same. It’s honestly everything I love about photos - it perfectly captures a moment in time of our lives, and the personality of our children shine through. I’ll take this over a “perfect” picture any day.
Some other things from our time with Santa I loved: When we walked in, I had no clue how either kid would react. Last year we went with Tom as Santa, so they don’t really remember the last time they saw a stranger as Santa. G held my hand and stayed back, but E ran right in, said hi, and goes “Can you believe I’m four now!?” Santa didn’t miss a beat “Wow! It seems like just last year you were three!”
So while E continued to talk about everything from a new toy he had at home to his favorite color, G really did not trust this Santa person. Did not want to be in pictures with him, did not want to talk to him, but when the question was posed about what they wanted for Christmas, G managed to answer “CANDY!” in unison with his brother. He eventually warmed up enough to get in the pictures, and as we were leaving he did say “That was so fun seeing Santa!”
When we were finished, we headed to Dunks. Why? When I was explaining to E & G what the morning would look like, E said to me “I was thinking that after we should get some donuts.” Oh yeah? I asked him. “Yes, for doing a great job talking to Santa!” I told him I couldn’t really argue with that, and I liked donuts, so after we saw Santa, off we headed!
