It’s now been several years since the Santa incident.  My son and I have come a long way on the road to recovery.  Most of our healing came simply from time and keeping an open dialog about that day’s events.  We also made huge emotional progress when I decided to turn the decidedly negative event into a positive experience.  Shortly after the incident I decided that no child should experience the terror we felt that day.  Christmas should be a time when we create warm and loving memories that last a lifetime.  The cornerstone to those yuletide memories is an unforgettable visit with Santa.  When I say unforgettable I mean in a good way, not in a Mom ran over the cat on Christmas Eve kind of way.  Or in our case, a dead Santa now haunts my dreams and is going to eat me sort of way. I decided that my Studio was going to help create those warm fuzzy memories by offering our own Santa portraits to the boys and girls of the Willamette valley.  I wanted to give parents options when it comes to taking their child to see Santa. The first step was to find a Santa that I could trust and who [...]

We marched into Christmas land ready. We strolled over the fake bridge and when we hit the other side my guy looked back over his shoulder.  I swear to this day that lonely wind whistled through the fake trees and gently blew the hair from over his eyes. I got lost in that life defining moment but with a quite shrug of his shoulders my boy made peace with his decision and slowly marched on.  For a second I stood and watched him as fathers do and then quickly followed.  My son and I traveled the path of fake snow and glitter past the animatronic reindeer.  We traversed the forest of Styrofoam candy canes and took a moment to watch as wooden elven puppets welcomed us to Christmas land. A journey of a thousand miles may begin with a single step but in my experience when you start seeing dancing elves it’s best to call it a day.  Thankfully we were greeted outside Santa’s workshop by what I assume to be the photographer and an abnormally obese elf with a bad case of acne.  I’m guessing that because the North Pole is so remote and cut off from the outside world that they must have [...]

A couple of Christmas’s ago I decided to take my son to go see Santa for the first time.  He was a bit old for this to be his first trip but up to this point he’d given Mr. Claus a very wide birth whenever we saw him.  But not this year because my little man was growing up.  I waited all week for the day to come and I prepared answers to holiday questions that were probably way beyond  a three year old.  You never know what they’ll ask and I didn’t want to spoil any holiday magic right out of the gate. I was beaming with excitement as I thought back on taking my daughters to see Santa for the first time.  I remembered how my middle kiddo (then just a baby) was fascinated by Santa’s impeccably white beard.  How Santa’s boots were so shiny you could see your reflection.  I also remember Santa’s good natured HO HO HO’s as we all (my wife and I included) jumped on his lap at once for our picture. We still have the picture and we still love it.  If the house were on fire that picture would be on the list [...]