Today Avery and I went shopping with a dear friend and her two kids. We were walking around in the Bass Pro store and the greeter encouraged us to go visit Santa, which I thought would be neat for Aves to say, "Hi." I later found out that he took free pictures with the kids, which I thought was wonderful.

So I tell Avery, "Let's go see Santa," and unstrap her from her stroller. Well come to find out this Santa is on the naughty list.

As I walked down the sweetly decorated red carpet with Aves in tow the Bass Santa, (or bad Santa) kept telling me, "Mom, you're going too slow, come on, hurry up, hurry up." I'm thinking wow this guy really has somewhere to go, which was weird because he kept encouraging us to come take pictures.

The closer I got the more Avery tightened her grip on me. I think she got the same impression from B-Santa that I did. I thought maybe if I "introduced them" and she got comfortable with him she may just sit with him for a picture. Well, this guy didn't even give us that opportunity. He grabbed her, she grabbed me, and he kept demanding, "Just put her down, put her down."

First off, it would have been easier to get a piece of gum out of my hair than put Avery on his lap, unless of course I wanted my shirt to be ripped off my body. Secondly, this B-Santa was so rude and unfriendly that I had second thoughts about even wanting Avery to sit on his lap.

"You know if you're nervous the kid can feel it, you let her cry at home why not let her cry here, if she cries at least you get a free picture of her with Santa out of the deal." These are some of the obnoxious things he was saying as Avery grabbed her candy cane.

So, obviously I opted out of wrenching her from my side and placing her on a mean strangers lap so I can get a free picture of her screaming her head off with B-Santa and remember the horror that I put her through for years to come. Sorry I don't have a picture to post, but I doubt I'll regret it and it's not worth making her scared of all things Santa for the rest of her life or even just this one Christmas.

My friend did get a nice offer from him though. After her daughter sat on his lap with no problems he offered my friend, the mom, to sit on his lap, with a dirty old man's laugh, "He, he." Maybe he's not so bad after all......