Santa pictures

We headed up to some of the local farms today to do Santa pictures.  Last year one of the places allowed you to take your own pictures for just a donation.  We got there only to find out that there was no Santa there this year.  We did get some lunch, though, in their little restaurant.

We headed on to another farm that did have a Santa.  We did have to pay for someone to take a picture, but it was cheaper than at the mall (yay!) and she allowed us to take as many pictures of our own as we wanted.  My parents joined us so they could see Graesen meeting Santa this year and also help out with the picture taking.  Graesen would not go up to see Santa without us.  Even in my lap he would not look Santa in the eye :)  At least he wasn't screaming!

After going home for a quick run, Graesen and I headed back to my parents' house to try to see another Santa.  Every year the fire department in their area sends out a fire truck with a trailer attached.  Santa is on the trailer and the kids can go meet Santa if they bring some canned food to donate.  It was something that was so special to me as a kid, so I was excited to watch Graesen experience it.  The website said they were going to visit 3 neighborhoods between 4 and 9, and my parents' was first.  Graesen and I got there a little early and waited.  We kept on waiting.

We waited while Graesen played with my dad.

We waited while we ate dinner and Graesen provided some post-dinner entertainment...

Finally, at 8:00 I decided to load Graesen up and see if we could find Santa.  We couldn't find him anywhere :(  I am thinking there may have been an emergency that made them unable to show up.  They are supposed to go to a few store parking lots in the coming weeks, so I might take Graesen then.  He is obsessed with fire trucks, so seeing Santa on a fire truck would be pretty special for him.

Graesen's cough wasn't bad at all throughout the day, but as soon as we got home he started coughing up a storm.  He was asleep in the car and as I carried him in he coughed super hard, then woke up a bit and told me it hurt :(  He coughed a ton in bed and then started crying, so now he is curled up right beside me. 
And, for the record, my mouth still hurts.  Pretty bad.  It actually got worse feeling today, so that was a bummer.  I'm hoping that's not a bad sign.  Graesen may have accidentally head-butted me in the mouth super hard yesterday early in the morning.  It hurt so bad and continued to be very sore for several hours afterwards.