Last week while listening to the radio in the car I came across a station playing nothing but Christmas music, I quickly changed it.

This past weekend I complained to Dave that a good portion of the homes in our neighborhood not only already have their houses decorated for Christmas, but have also been turning their lights on nightly.

It seems like we barely get past Halloween and the stores start playing Christmas carols and advertising holiday sales. It’s much too soon for my taste.

However, that didn’t stop us from going to the mall Monday night to get the boys’ picture taken with Santa. I rationalized it by telling myself we’d avoid the lines and I’d have more time to get copies of the photo to include with our Christmas cards. But truthfully I was like a little kid at, well, Christmas, and couldn’t wait.

I honestly wasn’t expecting Adam to want anything to do with The Claus. He approached him hesitantly, told him his name and that he was a good boy and wanted a Hot Dog (Mickey Mouse) toy and some new bathtub crayons. Then he even gave Santa a high five.

We asked Adam if he would sit on Santa’s lap. We could tell he wasn’t thrilled with the idea, but he did it without complaint. Luke stole the show by charming all the ladies in a 15 foot radius and giving the biggest smiles.

We bought a CD with the picture on it, and when we got home from our trip I popped the disc in to the computer and was not pleased when I realized it was blank. I tried calling the mall, but the Santa station had closed half an hour earlier.

I called again the next morning and left a message with someone in customer service at the mall, and then ended up driving out there anyway. I was afraid they’d delete the photo from their system and knew there was no way that Adam would pose with Santa again.

Thankfully they still had the pictures they took and burned all three of them (instead of just the one I paid for) to the disc and gave me some printed out wallets of our favorite photo as well to help make up for the inconvenience.

As soon as we got close to Santa Adam laid down and hid in the stroller. He wouldn’t even give the jolly old soul a wave. The Duke really digs the man in red though and didn’t complain at all when he asked to hold him. It took them about ten minutes to get everything sorted out and at one point Luke put his head down against the furry part of Santa’s jacket and started to fall asleep. It was adorable. I asked if I could take a quick picture with my cell phone (which is not normally allowed) and they said it was fine. Unfortunately Santa shifted and Luke popped his head back up.

I have a feeling both boys are on Santa’s “Nice List” this year. I know they’re on mine.