A visit to Santa.

We took Tiddler to Blackburn today...though I said I wouldn't because he had another tantrum at school yesterday....but hubby went actoss the road to his house and mentioned that we were going out.....the lad wanted to come, and hubby, of course, said yes.
I wish he would ask me first....because he would not have been allowed to go if I had had my way.
I sat him down before we went out and laid out the rules....no Tantrums....if we went in a toyshop there were to be no shenanigans when we wanted to come out....if he misbehaved in any way then we would come straight back home.....did he understand.
'Yes' was his reply....'I have to be a good boy'.
So off we went. We were in Blackburn fairly early. Santa and his elves were in the Mall.
Tiddler has never had a visit to Santa before.
We were going to take him last year, but I had horrid memories of taking his mum and she screamed the place down and could not be consoled - not even with chocolate.
It scared all the other children, and left me feeling fraught...so last year we gave it a miss.
Anyway, we got in line.....saying that there was only one other little boy in front of us so there wasn't much waiting.

Tiddler went in and was immediately enthralled by Santa, they had a good conversation about what he would like.....Tiddler mentioned that he would leave a carrot for Rudolph and a mince pie for Santa......Santa said he would share Rudolph's carrot as he was too fat.......the reindeers had a really hard job getting him and the toys into the sky.
Tiddler said 'we'll leave you a carrot then as well'......Santa laughed, Tiddler was given a present that he could open now...he was pleased about that. A photo was taken and we left......Tiddler was elated and I was £9 lighter.

No visit to Blackburn is complete without a visit to the toy department at Mercers....Tiddler just loves it in there....he gazes at the vast array of toys and games.
If there is anything that says 'Try me' he does.......he usually has a go with the wooden train set too....and then we come away...sometimes he gets something small, but today he didn't. He came out without a murmur.....but then said he wanted to go in Woolworths....again to look at the toys.

So that was where we headed off to.
In woolies they had the Nintendo WII at a very competitive price.....or at least that is the way it looked.
Hubby knows that Tiddler loves the games, but thinks the WII is a better idea because you have to stay active......it isn't a sit and play machine......he also knows that I like the games machines too. I could see me and Tiddler in the front room playing sports.....so he said 'I'm going to get one of those'.......so he grabbed an empty box and headed to the till.....there were a number of folk had similar ideas.......none of us got the consoles as they hadn't any in stock(like most of the retailers in the area)......there were loud complaints that if they hadn't any stock then the boxes should be removed from the shelves....or some kind of sign that stated they were out of stock....not let people queue up to be told that they hadn't any.......grrrrrr.
There were some very disgruntled customers leaving the store today.
Hubby suggested I go online and see if I could get my hands on one, but I told him I am quite happy to wait until after Christmas if necessary......I am not in any kind of hurry.
Tiddler wanted to know if we could get a 'Sonic' game for the WII....I told him.....'When we get a machine, we'll see'.

It was 1pm by the time we arrived home so we were all hungry....Tiddlers Mum and Dad had gone out so I gave him some lunch......and then he played on my computer for a while. Though he does need watching...I left him for two minutes while I went for a wee(a different kind of WII) and when I came back he had somehow wiped all my desktop icons......he couldn't tell me how he had done it.......and for a while I couldn't think how to restore them.
I told Tiddler to go downstairs and annoy grandad for a bit, while I got my brain into gear to restore the desktop. I did manage to do it eventually......but I won't leave him alone with the computer again.