well we finally did it. elsie decided that she'd muster up the courage to ask santa for some toys. we marched right into the mall (which is courageous in its own right) and headed straight to santa. fortunately santa had just returned from his 15 min. "feeding the reindeer"/smoke break so we were second in line leaving no time to decide that no toy was worth sitting in an old hairy guy's lap who smelled like moth balls, old spice aftershave, and wrigleys spearmint gum. we quickly chose the convenient photo package and placed elsie upon the old guy's knee. from right of stage dad prompted "tell santa what you want". a whispered toys and cookies was the reply to dad. great, "now tell that to santa". nervously elsie turned to santa and whispered what i assume was "toys and cookies". now it was mom's turn to get elsie to turn to the camera. snap. snap. and not a second too soon. "daddy, daddy get down please". as you can see elsie now has proof the she is a big girl, not afraid of men she really should be afraid of, and officially asked santa for holiday treats.