Breakfast with Papa Noel

Saturday morning, Santa showed up for breakfast with the embassy kids on this bad boy...I'd say definitely a trade up from the ol' sleigh...at least in these warmer lands... Bran could have gone home happy after spending a moment with this.

We'd been working on what to ask Santa for for the past week. Bran: "coo-coo train." Nuala: "sito" or, "cochesito," meaning a stroller for her baby doll. But of course the two of them wanted nothing to do with the lap once they got near him. Here he is on a maté break.

As I tried to gently place Nuala on the jolly old fellow, she wrapped her strong little almost-2-year-old legs around my knee and, despite the immense strength I possess, I couldn't pry the child off. This was of course accompanied by screaming and wailing, while I smiled and whispered through gritted teeth, "He's nice, you'll like him!" She didn't bite. Bran was cute. He kept, very shyly, approaching Santa (or, Papa Noel, as Bran usually calls him), his little hands clutched in front of him, a little half smile on his face...it was so sweet...but he didn't want to sit on his lap either. So here we all are.

Then we enjoyed a buffet breakfast on the beautiful lawn of the DCM's house (Deputy Chief of Mission, #2 to the ambassador), with flowers blooming all around and the sun shining gently (okay, not so gently) down upon us. So nice. And THEN...what every child had been waiting for...present time!!

Nuala planted herself by Victor, the giant elf. She was fascinated watching the presents come out of the bag, get passed to Santa, and then to some lucky child. She kept trying to edge around Victor's legs to get at the sackful of toys.


And then Bran's name was called! Oh, our little guy is just so cute! And sweet. Have I mentioned he's so sweet? The shy little smile. The slow approach. The lean-in for the picture. Melts a mama's heart, it does.


And whose name was that? Yes, indeed, Nuala! Haha...I love these next few pictures! She was getting that present, but intended on staying as far away from Santa as possible. Reeeeach for it...

And look at that little smile!! Almost makes you forget all about the tantrums...almost.

Have you ever seen a more pathetic-looking little fellow? Talk about toy envy...okay, I think he was just curious, but the looks he gave all the other toys were so...sad. Bran wandered around to all the other little guys' toys and just stood and stared... I got the feeling the Hot Wheels we gave him weren't all that impressive.

And there was a bounce house and trampoline (yes, the netted one!) Those were way fun, of course. Top left picture shows Nuala diving off one of the inflatable obstacles in the bounce house. That was her stunt of choice that day, and there at the end she wrentched her little back and came hobbling out, "owie, dada, owie..." She recovered pretty quickly. And then we went home and napped. All of us. Then we played in the pool. I love weekends...

(click it, Mom, it gets a lot bigger... ;)