Unsuccessful Christmas picture-taking weekend

We were supposed to go to this thing called "Christmas in Central Park". (Yes, there is a Central Park in Georgia!) It's kinda like a street fair with Christmas-themed events, shops, etc. Plus there is a Santa Claus ready to take pictures with the kiddies, which is my main reason for going there. (Trying to avoid the mall, here!) When we got there, we realized that we had to take a shuttle bus from the parking lot of the park to one of the main buildings where the event was being held -- and we wouldn't be able to fit the kids' strollers on there! Really sucked. So we totally skipped out on that event (boo to them for not mentioning the shuttle bus in the ad) and decided to go to the mall instead. We went to the Picture Place for the heck of it. I had never taken the kids to get professional pictures taken so I figured it would be interesting. Well the kids were restless as heck, even though they had all had a nap. We waited and waited, and by the time it was our turn to take the pictures the kids were just running around the photo area and just didn't want to stay still. The photographer wasn't that great either. I would have thought that he (and the place in general) would try to distract the kids with toys or noisemakers or anything like that. No such luck. So he ended up taking one picture, which we never picked up because we didn't want to wait for it. Thank goodness we didn't pay for it beforehand. (They have a no-sitting-fee policy, whew.) They made us reschedule for today, but I don't think we're going to go. I think I may just have to really try hard to get the kids to sit still in our living room for a picture. Oh well!