Addi Says No To Santa And Jesus

(posted by CJ) Sorry for the provocative title, but you will understand in a moment.

First of all, we'll talk about last weekend. Mom came into town and we did some Christmas stuff all day Saturday. We went to First Baptist Church in Pasadena and watched their Singing Christmas Tree, which was amazing. All day long we had been asking Addi questions like, "Do you love Mommy?" or "Where is Nana?" and she had answered however she wanted. Well, in church, she was playing with the program and I just read off the slip of paper you drop in the offering plate. I asked her, "Addi, do you want to take Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?" She looked up at me, and loud enough for everyone to hear and in the same sarcastic tone she uses when I ask her if she wants me to tickle her she said, "Nooooooooo."

Next up was Moody Gardens and the Festival of Lights. I've had more enjoyable kicks to the groin than this "Festival" crap. Seriously, they basically just bought every decoration Lowe's sells for frontyards then made a crappy trail out of them. Of course, just as I had complained for about the twentieth time I noticed that after 45 minutes of the same crappy lights, Addi was still screaming "ohh" and "ahh" to every one of them. She didn't complain a bit and had the time of her life. I really need to look at the world through her eyes more often, its much prettier.

So, today we go to visit Santa. All's well, despite the 45 minute wait in line with the family that's just more than happy to share their life story with me. (Seriously, there's a reason you're called a stranger and I do not want to make idle chit chat. Didn't you see me pretending to make phone calls and talking to nothing, all the while hoping my phone wouldn't ring and allow you to find out to what lengths I had gone to ignore you?) Anyway, we get to Santa and Addi is talking with him, shaking his hand, and showing off her Rudolph shirt, so we figure all is well. Then, we try to put her on his lap. She wasn't having it. After mulitple shots of a 30-year old man shoving a screaming 2-year old onto the leg of a man who had spent far too many hours of his life in this exact predicament, we end up with our Santa picture. So that's why this year, you'll have to look at my ugly mug alongside Addi in the '07 Santa picture.