Christmas At Canada Place

On the Saturday before Christmas, we headed down to Canada Place to see the old Woodward's window displays and all of the brightly decorated Christmas trees. Most importantly, we wanted a second chance at geting a picture of Bradyn with Santa.

First we started off with some basic trees.

Then we worked our way along the animated displays.

Daddy and Brady took a ride on the Christmas train (sorry - pictures turned out way too dark) and then, we stumbled across the big guy. As soon as Bradyn saw Santa, she turned around and started to high-tail it out of there. After catching up with her and doing a little (OK, a lot of) coaxing, I convinced her to walk right by, then find a place where we could stand and take a look. After a few minutes of big hugs, hushed whispers and lots of reassurance, very slowly, we made our way towards Santa. There were very few people around so, with the luxury of time and an extremely patient Santa, we managed to get Bradyn on his lap without a tear shed. I'm still impressed at how Santa talked me through the whole process, prompting me when to sit down, move her closer to him, put her on the chair and then onto his lap.

"I don't know about this..."

"Daddy... don't go too far"

"OK, maybe this guy's not so bad."

"There's my Daddy - Cheese!"

"Hey - I like these bells. Can I have them?"

After our visit with Santa, Bradyn decided she better write him a letter because, in all the excitement, she forgot to tell him what she wanted. (Notice Bradyn's cheesy smile - just the first of many more you'll see. It's her new 'thing'.)

When we were all done writing and colouring, we decided it was almost time to call it a day. On our way back by Santa, Bradyn walked right up to him (while he was talking to another little girl) and gave him a 'High 5'. It was so cute!

Our last official task for the day was to mail her first letter to Santa...

... in a Guiness Record Book-sized mail box!

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty successful day. Note to self - next year forget the mall Santa and go right to Canada Place. No lineups, and you get to take your own pictures!