Santa Claus is coming ... to the Idaho Falls Public Library

I don't know if you have to pay money to have your kid sit on Santa's lap at the mall. I'm sure you have to pay for the pictures, which is dumb, considering the number of cameras we have in our household. So, being the cheapskate I am, my children do not sit on the mall Santa's lap.

But when Santa makes a scheduled appearance during story time at the library, you can bet I'll be first in line ... with my own camera.

Right after lunch today, I told the girls we were headed to the library for story time. This is unusual because we normally attend the morning story time, but with Bekah in preschool, that's not an option. So we made an exception to the "naps right after lunch" rule to go to a special story time.

I didn't tell the girls who would be coming to the library. I wanted that to be a surprise. So we settled ourselves down on the rug and waited for the Big Man himself.

The look on Bekah's face when she saw Santa and Mrs. Claus enter the room was priceless. You can judge for yourself:

I'm thinking she likes it.

We sang a few songs:

Ana doing the actions for "Once There Was a Snowman."

Bekah banging her sticks during the "Kris Kringle Band" song.

Ana and her sticks.

... and then the girls lined up and patiently waited to sit on Santa's lap. Keep in mind, Bekah didn't have the guts to sit on his lap until last year (when she was 3), so I carefully explained to both girls that they only had to sit on Santa's lap if they wanted to. But with big sister leading the way, Ana wasn't at all concerned.

Bekah telling Santa and Mrs. Claus that she would like a music box.

My kids are too concerned with their candy canes to look at the camera.

Mrs. Claus, Santa and Ana.

Again, the candy cane is more interesting.