"And He Said, Santa!"

After living on Long Island as long as we have, we've realized a few things. One of those things we've realized is that if you can take advantage of doing things when nobody else has thought of it yet, you can save yourself a lot of time and aggravation. So we decided it was time to get an early word in with the Big Guy. Robert -- and Bobo, once again in matching hats -- weren't too sure at first:

But Smith Haven Mall was all decked out, pending the arrival of the fat man in the red suit!


Quickly, Robert realized something was up.


Robert even wanted to share his excitement with Bobo:


Suddenly, the Big Man arrived:

Robert went over to check it out.

We decided to let another family go first, since Robert quickly became unsure of himself. We watched the other kids speak with Santa:

Then it was our turn. Mom explained to Robert who Santa was, and Robert gave him a high-five:


As hard as we tried, Robert refused to smile. Simply refused.

Although he was unimpressed by his experience with Santa, Mom did explain Robert's Christmas list, and that he had, in fact, been a very good boy. Santa promised he'd do what he could.

On the way out, Robert was more impressed with some fictional characters.