K and I met another person with a little baby and headed out to the mall for a visit to Santa Claus. I don't really have solid memories myself of visiting Santa. Maybe that's why malls and I got off on such the wrong foot. It seemed like a lot of chaos, more trouble, really than it was worth. (My view of the commerce-side of the holiday season is nowhere near as jaundiced as, say David Sedaris', but he's still an inspiration.)

So we packed the young man out into the big red car and headed out to a low-rent mall that, because of it's second-tier status, featured generous Santa visitation hours. Our gamble at the low-end house of stores paid off because there was no line, and the Santa was in good spirits (perhaps aided by the ingestion of some good spirits). Our friend's four year old, for whom seeing Santa was a moral imperative, was shocked in the moment, as so many young people are, and grinned but could say nearly nothing: Mother: Tell Santa what you want for Christmas. Child: (Speechless). Mom: Don't you want a Barbie? Child: (Speechless, but beaming.) Mom: (Camera clicking.) She wants a Barbie.

We went along with the thing, and placed Reid on the knee of ol' Kris Kringle himself. The Jolly Old Elf smiled broadly, through an authentic beard and the little round glasses which are a nice touch, and Reid sat stonefaced staring into the distance like he had pressing business elsewhere. The pictures are riotous, because it appears as if we took a vivid image of Santa and airbrushed Reid looking stoned onto his knee. Perhaps later, but not now, I will feature them here. However, in place of that bizarre image, I extend this little smiling Reid, in a Santa hat, waving at the camera, though he doesn't know what a wave is. This is one of the hundreds of photos we took during a multi-phase session of photography aimed at securing one picture for our Christmas cards. The one that many of you will receive was better than this one by a hundredth of a percent. This one is terribly cute, and the smile on our little boy's face could melt diamonds. Merry Christmas.