So it's safe to say that Brunch/Breakfast with Santa at the Carolina Inn is quickly becoming a tradition in our family. This is our third year! You can reminisce about the past two Christmases HERE and HERE. 
As always, the Inn was all decked out in the most stunning Christmas decorations, set to the theme of the 12 days of Christmas.
Throughout the inn, were also Gingerbread houses for their annual Gingerbread House competition. The kids LOVED checking out the trees, the decor, and all the Sugary (and very tempting!) houses!
As is tradition, we also wrote Santa a letter. Last year I thought that might help Sissy be less nervous. It helped, but she still didn't want to sit on his lap all by herself. And last year, Liam didn't want to have anything to do with him. This year, though, BOTH kids sat on his lap!
And as you can see, they did pretty darn good! Santa first noticed Liam's firetruck. Liam told me the other day he wanted to give it to Santa. So when it was time to head up to his lap, he reached out his hand to give him the firetruck... too awestruck to speak. Santa held the toy for a few minutes and told him how he gets to ride in lots of firetrucks in parades all around the world. Then he told the kids to come up on his lap... and they did!
That's when he noticed Elizabeth's letter, and read it all the way through, stopping to make little comments. Elizabeth was so nervous (you can tell) but I'm SO proud of her for doing it! And at the end someone told the kids to give Santa a big hug... I will NEVER in my life forget the look on her face when she gave Santa his hug. It was a look of pure love. Didn't catch it on camera, unfortunately, but it was precious.
Anyway...
Now that we've done this 3 years in a row, it's kinda fun to compare pictures from each year, and see how much the kids have grown.
Here's our family pic from 2009
And from 2010--lol! Classic!
... ... ...
And here we are, Christmas 2011
We've come a long way baby!
Here's another comparison... I just LOVE this pic of daddy and Liam from 2009.
I tried to recapture it this year, but Liam it was past nap time, and Liam wasn't having much to do with pictures at that point.
Alas, I think next year might be our last time to do Breakfast w/Santa at the Inn. Sad, I know. It was pretty reasonable our first few years, when both kids were free (3 and under) but now that Elizabeth is no longer free, it's getting costly. And once Liam is no longer free, I just don't think we can justify the expense, tradition or no. Since next year will be our last year Liam is free, I'm thinking we'll try to book for this black and white room, like our first year. It's just a little more "fancy" and Santa's big entrance just feels a little more grand in that room.
We would have picked that day/room this year, but we wanted to coordinate with some friends, The Munch family. We had such a nice time visiting with them, and I think the kids had fun with their friends. Above: Elizabeth with Buddy Katherine.
And there's my two by the beautiful Christmas tree in the main lobby.
Oh my... what fun!
It may have taken us 4 years and 5 Christmases, but the kids FINALLY sat on Santa's lap! I wonder what next year holds...?!
