So my girls are destined to not get photos with Santa. First petsmart cancelled Santa's visit. Then one that was supposed to be close got moved further away...
Found out that the mall near me was doing a 2 hour Santa and pets time from 6 to 8 today. They call it Santa Paws. I was super excited. I even went to the mall yesterday to check with Santa and find out if he would be OK with holding skunks or if this was a Cat and Dog only event. He was fine with it. Even excited. Said he had held a lot of pets in his day, but never a skunk, and he would be glad to take pictures with the girls.
I was the FIRST person in the pet line... just waiting for the children line to finish up. Santa saw me waiting and waved even. So here I am sitting in line, and I was informed that once Santa starts taking pictures with pets he will no longer take pictures with kids (something about allergies, fur, and insurance). I let a family with a baby in a stroller get in the line in front of me cause I wasn't in a hurry. About 4 people from the end of the children's line Santa's Elf comes out very distressed and says "Everyone take your children into the nearest store and hide, the mall is on lockdown.... get them to safety."
WTF Universe?
We start heading down the hallway as mall patrons are being pulled into stores by the workers and they are locking the door grates behind them. I heard one person say something about "had a gun" and another person say "Sheriff is on the way." For those curious, I was with the 4 or 5 parents who looked at those flimsy metal grates said "Go into a store? Screw that... the door to the mall is right there.... " and we all took our kids (furbabies and otherwise) and hightailed it out of there. Thumbs up to the guy who walked out the door to scope the scene before we all bolted.
I need to move....