This is Hallie’s favorite holiday song and she sings it all the time. So she was in heaven a couple weeks ago when Santa showed up to the ward party. She even sat on his lap in exchange for a candy cane of course! So for FHE the other night we decided to head to the mall so she could see him one last time before he packs up and heads north. While in the car she kept saying she was excited to go to the church…we were confused, and informed her we were going to the mall. A large tantrum erupts from the back seat, “No, I want to see Santa at church.” She was confused. She thought Santa resided at church.

We got to the mall and the line wasn’t too long. There was an older lady- late 60’s, orange from all the tanning, wrinkles (probably from all the tanning), assisted by a walker, decked out in elf attire. No joke. At first she was comical. Inching ahead of us trying to see Santa. Waving him down to try and get his attention, just funny. She’s trying to make small talk with the big man which was awkward. “Hey, Santa! I bet you were wondering when I was going to be back this year. I was going to come earlier but I didn’t want you to be on your dinner break. When do you take your dinner break?” Etc, etc, etc….

So she ultimately cut in front of us, which wasn’t a big deal, she was more excited than Hallie! However, it was late and the majority of the children in the line were growing tired. So our elf lady-friend continues to inch her way towards the front of the line. She is genuinely excited to be there. Her excitement is slightly concerning, but it’s Christmas- it brings out the crazy in a lot of us. The line continues to move slowly, with the Elf now standing in front of everyone. She then gets her turn with Santa, and immediately the line stops moving. She wants more pictures with Santa, then has to check them out on the computer, then they take more, and more, and more. The couple behind us is now fully irritated with the old woman who cut in front of all the four-year-old children to see Santa, and who has officially halted the line. She was there for a good 7-8 minutes. If she would’ve taken any longer I swear parents were about to carry her out, walker and all.

So we made sure to keep our time short. Thirty seconds was all Hallie needed to tell Santa that she wanted a tutu, and to snap a quick picture.