Santa already!?

I took Tessa to the mall yesterday just to get the heck out of the house for a couple of hours. While there we discovered that Santa is ALREADY in town. Tessa watched carefully while other children went up, sat on his lap, and told him what they wanted for Christmas. After about 5 minutes I said it was time to go and she insisted that we stay so she could sit on Santa's lap. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. She's never been fond of Santa or any other "characters" for that matter. In any case, the line was short so we got in. I thought that by the time it was her turn she would have changed her mind. Well, I couldn't have been more wrong. When her turn came she walked right up with all the confidence in the world, gave Santa the biggest hug and sat right down on his lap. She kept smiling for the camera even though they weren't actually taking her picture (way too expensive), but it was darn cute. When he asked what she wanted for Christmas she said, "a dollhouse." The whole thing was totally adorable and I just stood there watching in amazement that MY child would be brave enough to sit with Santa.