Santa in Salt Lake
We travelled to Utah today (by plane) and will spend the next few days at Grandma and Grandpa Berrett's place in North Salt Lake. My Mom and Dad are starting up a new tradition this year; they, erm, "invited" Santa Claus to drop by and visit the grandkids (Santa just happened to be free). Since Santa was making the long journey to my folks house (*wink*), we decided to make the journey as well.

Having Santa visit the grandkids is actually something my own Berrett grandparents did when I was growing up. Once a year, my brothers and all of our Berrett cousins would congregrate at the home of my own Grandma/Grandpa Berrett (may they rest in peace). We would sing a few songs with Santa and then each of us, in turn, would sit on Santa's lap, disclose our fondest wishes for that Christmas, and receive a gift from Santa's bag. On some years Santa even had a gift for my parents, aunts, and uncles. Good times.

Tonight this historic Berrett tradition returned.

We had been talking up this event for a few weeks with Berkeley and Eliana. In fact, Kristy and I both had been telling Berkeley bedtime stories about Santa coming to Grandma and Grandpa Berrett's house. The story would always emphasize that Berkeley sat on Santa's lap and didn't cry. We did this hoping that we would not experience a repeat from last year at our church Chistmas party.

Last year at our church Chistmas Party, arrangements for Santa to visit all of the kids were made (again, Santa just happened to free that night). Needless to say, when it was Berkeley's turn to sit on Santa's lap he completely melted into tears and sobbed uncontrollably for quite some time afterward. It was kind of sad I guess, but I couldn't help chuckle a bit under my breath.

Well, regardless of our repeated efforts to prep Berkeley by suggesting in many dozens of bedtime stories over the past few weeks that "Berkeley sat on Santa's lap and Berkeley didn't cry and Berkeley told Santa he had been a good boy", Berkeley did cry. In fact, he didn't even make it to Santa's lap - he started sobbing and screaming as soon as Santa walked into the room. Ah well... maybe next year.

Eliana was indifferent about the affair. But she does know what presents are and she did figure out that she would get a present if she sat on the lap of the man in red for a few seconds. However, it was all business for Eliana. She didn't mutter a word on Santa's lap, nor could I get her to crack a smile (see picture below). She got her present and trotted off.

Each of the couples also received gifts from Santa, so I took my turn on Santa's lap as well (see below).

Eventually, Berkeley did settle down (some 15 minutes later). After he opened up his present (some wood train cars), I suppose he made the determination that Santa wasn't such a bad guy after all. When I asked him to sit on Santa's lap and say "thank you", he complied and I was able to snap a picture.

Here are a few sample images from the affair:

The complete gallery is available on-line:

Santa in Salt Lake Picture Gallery

Enjoy.