Going to See a Man About a Horse

Specifically, an American Girl horse. Which is what they each asked for. Well, when they saw Santa the night before, AnnaBeth told him she wanted a rat. A real live rat, that is. We've tried to explain, though, that Santa has more sense than to bring live animals on Christmas day, and they should never, ever expect a new pet on Christmas. So when we got down to crunch time yesterday, ("okay, this is the OFFICIAL Santa visit, and we'll probably not talk to Santa again in the next week"), she reverted to what she'd been talking about for the last 10 months or so -- wanting an American Girl horse from Santa.

Of course, this isn't the real Santa. It's just some helper. Although the girls thought he was okay --he didn't get the designation of Polyester Beard Guy from them.

They saw the real Santa last year:





And what was so cool was that he remembered them from the year before (which, of course, helped prove he was the real deal):



What a hoot -- I just now noticed that AnnaBeth is wearing the exact same striped shirt in 2 of those photos. Sort of like it's her official Go to See Santa shirt. Really, though, it isn't. Here's proof -- the year before that she wore a jumper:



And the year before? They both wore jumpers.



And since we're on a roll, putting up old Santa photos, here's the year before that:



And the year before that:



At which point we are apparently in our pre-digital era, since I can't find earlier pictures on the computer.