A Visit to St. Nick

We took Anthony for his first visit to see Santa Claus yesterday. What we didn't know at the time was that he was coming down with probably the worst cold he's had so far- he was up most of last night miserable with a cough and very stuffy nose! Hence the watery eyes and apathetic expression in all of the pictures. Still, the little guy was a trooper as usual.

It was COLD in Portland yesterday! In the low 30s but much colder with the wind- we felt like we were in the actual North Pole. (We can hear our friends in Minneapolis snickering, but we're not used to that here!) We made sure our little elf was bundled up:

"Why are you making me go outside?"

We heard through the parent grapevine that Macy's downtown has the best Santa, and we were not disappointed! We'll save the official portrait for the Christmas cards, but here are some shots we took. See how excited Anthony was? He could hardly contain himself.

A little background on the Macy's in Portland. This is hard to believe for those of us from New York who grew up associating Macy's with "A Miracle on 34th Street" and the Thanksgiving Day Parade, but Macy's is not too well-liked here. Until a few years ago, the store now called Macy's was the beloved, locally-owned Meier and Frank. Until evil Macy's came in and took over. Thousands of Portlanders (including Anthony's Daddy) have fond memories of visiting Santaland at Meier and Frank and riding the monorail. Cruel Macy's took away the monorail, but here's what it used to look like:

The children would be imprisoned in the rail cars and forced to ride around the ceiling of Santaland.

Even though it no longer runs, they've preserved one of the cars as sort of a museum piece.

"Please, Daddy. Don't make me go in that thing."

Can you believe Paul was once little enough to fit inside of this?

After the photo session with Santa, we introduced Anthony to some reindeer, including Comet and Rudolph, and some elves working in Santa's workshop. He wasn't sure what to make of the whole thing.

"Oh, yes! I would very much like to leave now!!!"

Merry Christmas from the Carson Family!