With the holiday season in full swing, the time has come for parents to take their children to meet Santa Claus. Former NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his wife, Amy, were the latest to follow this trend. As it turns out, however, their daughter was not overjoyed to be in the same vicinity as Santa.
Both Earnhardt and Amy posted photos of the event on Instagram, capturing the different moods of Isla. In one photo, she was simply looking at Santa while sitting with her parents. In the second image, Isla was crying while being held at arm’s length.
Videos by PopCulture.com
“Just a little child character building,” Amy wrote in the caption. “Sorry Santa! Thank you [Sweet Grass Home].” It wasn’t revealed whether or not Santa accepted the apology, but he is used to crying children. It’s part of the job description.
View this post on Instagram
Crying children aside, the Earnhardt family has been very busy this holiday season. They were in Nashville, Tennessee on Thursday for the NASCAR Cup Awards banquet and were back in North Carolina on Sunday for a meeting with Santa.
Despite retiring at the end of the 2017 season, the driver-turned-NBC Sports analyst has still been jet setting around the country for various assignments. Although he has still been able to spend far more time with his family.
As Earnhardt’s Instagram profile shows, he has been enjoying dress-up with his daughter, going out on the water in the Florida Keys, and taking part in some hayrides in the fall weather. His schedule has been dictated less by racing and more by family events.
That being said, Earnhardt did tease a return to racing in the future, but it wasn’t in an expected way. As he explained in the days leading up to the NASCAR Cup Awards banquet, the longtime racer wants to see the Xfinity Cup return to Nashville.
“If they ever did run [a] (NASCAR) Xfinity race there and it’s in the next four or five years I’d love to put that on my calendar as a race to go run,” Earnhardt said. “Because that was a lot [of] fun when we used to race there in ’98 and ’99. I had more fun probably racing the late model there with [Joe] Buford and [Chad[ Chafin and all of those guys back in the day.”
That future return to racing has not been determined just yet, so Earnhardt will continue focusing on his family and the holiday season. Although he may not be taking Isla to see Santa in the coming weeks.
(Photo Credit: Jeff Hahne/Getty Images for Vera Bradley)
