Yes Virginia, Santa Moonlights at the Mall to help make ends meet

My little girl, this year, I found out today, vouched for me with the man in red.

There's a small backstory..    Jena was going through her growing list of must-haves that the man-in-red should deliver.   Faced with seemingly endless possibilities, (the sky's the limit, right?  :)  ) 

she asks me, "what would you like for Santa to bring you this year, daddy?"

I explained that I, in fact, was bad for a good portion of the year and will not be receiving anything from her favorite portly benefactor.  But, not to fear -- I would indulge myself by buying another R/C Plane or other toy at some point in the new year.

So.. my little frustratiingly cute 6 year old goes up to Santa and runs down her little list..  Then she vouches for me, "..and please bring Daddy and Airplane, he says he'll be better next year"

I'm posting these, so that.. in 10 years when she steals my wallet and rides off on a hover-motorcycle with some boy whom I don't approve of, I can reference it as "aww.. that was cute.  she was nice to me.. a decade ago.."

So.. what of Santa pics?  How do you handle them?  I just can't imagine you professional and semi professional photographers standing in line at the Mall for take-your-ticket Santa Photography.

This will sound wildly redneck but we go to the Bass Pro Shop near us every year.   They have a good looking Santa, nice setting with good lighting, allow you to use a DSLR and sell you a digital print for reasonable of their capture (which was great this year)

This capture, however was from my DSLR, then softened up a bit to reflect the wonder and magic children must fill when meeting Santa.