Better Not Pout, Better Not Cry?

We officially kicked off our holiday season this weekend with our church's annual Breakfast with Santa. We always look forward to such a special event - the team that puts this on ALWAYS does an amazing job - and this year didn't disappoint.

We began with a time of worship in the sanctuary, followed by breakfast, then stood in line to get our picture made with the Big Guy, and then should have made Christmas pillow cases as the craft. But we had to skip out on the Christmas craft this year since we had so much else going on and nap time was well upon us. Here's Michael entertaining Drew as we stood in line to wait: The boys seemed to be excited about getting to see Santa since we've been talking about him, and we had told them that they would get to sit on his lap and tell him one thing they'd like to have for Christmas (as if they don't have any toys to play with, and need more). They were fine while we waited in line. They were fine as we stood ready to go next. They were fine when we sat them on his lap. And then......
...This is what happened when Ben saw me walk away from him. Never mind that I was still in eyesight and standing less than 4 feet in front of him, he still didn't like Santa.
Drew, on the other hand, did great and was really interested in his beard. I'm telling you, that kid never meets a stranger. But Ben? Well, all the coaxing and bribing in the world wasn't going to get that sweet boy to calm down for a good picture. What worked, you ask?
Sitting on Mommy's lap while very politely telling Santa that he'd like to have more cars, "pwease". If you look closely, you can almost see the half smile that Ben finally gave him. Almost.