on Santa's lap

santa came to the ipswich library on saturday, so we took ella over after ballet.  she'd been very excited about seeing santa all week, and kept telling people that she was going to see him, so when we arrived in the children's room and she saw santa she ran up to him with her arms outstretched and it wasn't until she was sitting on his lap that she realized that she was with a stranger.

you can see her awkwardness/stiffness in the photos.

notice in the video that when santa asks her her name she pauses to think about it with a glint in her eye. she has lately taken turns being frances again and has been known to inform strangers who ask her what her name is "Um, i'm pretending that i'm frances today."

she did eventually warm up to him a little bit.

we went to the post office today to mail some letters and there is a right jolly old fellow there with a real white beard and belly, and ella asked me why i thought he looked so much like santa claus.  it's too bad the library didn't choose the guy with the real goods.  it would have been much more fun to pretend that santa works incognito for the postal service.  but i can't figure out how to discount the guy at the library without giving away the whole thing.  

she's smart.  she'll figure it out quick enough.  she already asked me why the santa in one of our books doesn't look like the santa she saw.