Doing Our Part To Keep Santa Off Welfare

We took Ellie to see Santa at a local mall this weekend. Times must really be tough in the North Pole this year because Tim had to empty out his wallet in order to purchase the picture of her in Santa's lap.

We expected there to be some kind of inflated cost associated with buying the pic, so we were smart and brought our own camera. The elves were smarter. You can only take a picture with your own camera if you agree to purchase their picture also. Additionally, moms and dads can only snap a shot from the sidelines - not exactly the greatest angle. As you stand in the long line a "sales-elf" comes up and shows you their picture packages and tells you the prices. While she waits for you to pick your jaw up off the floor, she suggests that you take out a second mortgage on your house to pay for them (okay, so she didn't say that, but it might have been a helpful suggestion).

We listened to how we could purchase this great package (one 8x10 sheet) consisting of one 5x7, one 3x5, and two wallets for only ...drum roll... $22.00!!! Four pictures of the same shot for $22.00?!? We also were given the option of buying a CD with the (single) image so we could print as many as we wanted. This cost a mere $25.00 and is the choice we made.

Sorry Ellie, that will be a deduction from your college account; at least you'll have a great shot of you and Santa.

Here are the pictures:

Daddy and Ellie walking to kill time while we waited.

Still walking... and waiting...

Here's the picture from "the sidelines." Ellie had just noticed their camera and was pointing at it.

And here is the shot we paid for. Notice Santa had to hold her left hand down. She wouldn't stop pointing at the camera.