Speaking of food...

Apparently the way to Kylie's heart is a candy cane.

Folks that know Kylie well have seen her reaction of sheer terror to Santa Claus. You may remember that she was so scared last year she ended up mistaking Adam's dad, Mickey, for Santa and wouldn't go near her beloved fellow boiled peanut eating friend. This year we were walking around a mall one afternoon on the upper level and came to the overlook area where you could see Santa downstairs. Kylie immediately started crying, wanted Ian to hold her, and asked to go home because, "I no yike San-Tah!" (Keep this stuff in mind...)

Yesterday after our failed attempt at going to a mall play area I realized that we were too far from home to make it back with two awake kids and eat lunch so we got pizza in the food court. As we sat and waited for Caleb to finish his pizza, Kylie saw a man dressed in jeans, a khaki denim-type button down, big black boots, a Santa hat, and long white hair and a beard. She asked me with a worried expression if that was Santa and without seeing his face, I said, "No honey, Santa is downstairs."

I kept an eye on the guy for a few minutes just to be sure that she didn't get scared, but then got distracted by Caleb grunting to get my attention and then signing "more" for his pizza. As I was cutting I caught some movement at the table behind us. Sure enough, the bearded man was Santa ~ apparently mall Santa's get lunchtime, and if your kids want to know what he was eating, it was a Chick-fil-a sandwich and fries. I always knew the man had good taste!

Really though? The food court had all the extra seating due to the play area being gone for the holidays, Chick-fil-a was at the OTHER end of the food court, there were tons of empty tables between us and there, and he decided to sit behind the one kid who is more terrified of Santa than any other in the state of NC??? Really??? (Turns out that Mrs. Claus who was there to enjoy lunch with him was getting a burger from 5 Guys...)

So I try to keep Kylie distracted by offering her little bites of Caleb's pizza since she cleaned hers up so quickly. But then Caleb ~ who doesn't seem to know what a stranger is (unless you try to pick him up) ~ notices Santa and starts waving and giggling. And of course Kylie turns around to see who he is waving at.

For one second time stood still as I waited for the cries of terror to start. Kylie simply froze. It was like she couldn't move. Santa cheerfully grinned at her and asked what she wanted for Christmas ~ still no movement from Kylie. Mrs. Claus waved and still my sweetie stood, mouth open, feet glued in place. Santa looked from Kylie to me, moved his lips to ask me if she was scared of Santa, and when I mouthed back "TERRIFIED!" he simply smiled and offered her a candy cane.

With that one sugary stick, the spell was broken. Kylie turned, asked me if I could have it and when I said, "Yes sweetie!" she walked the four steps over to Santa, hugged him and took the candy cane. Now she even says that she will "Dess up in my pitty red dess and go sit on Santa's lap to have my pik-tur."

A candy cane huh?