Santa's coming to town!!

Thursday night our daycare provider, Jaime, was nice enough to host a Christmas party for her "families" -- complete with a visit from Santa. With Dustin working nights that meant that it was just going to be me and the kids. Between me running late and another party in the area the streets were lined with cars all the way down the block by the time we arrived.

So I drove around the block twice partially in disbelief of my bad luck and partially in my attempt to delay the inevitable. Of course Lauren's car seat was on the side of the van in which exiting the vehicle would require climbing the Mt. Everest of snow/ice banks. So I attempted to get her out through the other side of the van. Has anyone else tried to remove a car seat from the opposite side of a van with a 20+ pound child strapped in all while the child remains sleeping? I'll tell you right now....it's impossible.

So I carried her in her car seat, the diaper bag, my purse, a gift bag, another bag with two more presents and I was holding Josh's hand trying to keep him from slipping on all the ice. Honestly, I walked about two houses down and thought about turning back around. At that point I was not in the Christmas spirit at all and was afraid I might take it out on poor, unsuspecting Santa. But I pushed on.

We finally got up to her driveway and then we basically had to get on our hands and knees to crawl underneath all the "iced down" branches. It was the training camp of Christmas parties.

By the time I actually got to her door my arm was spasming from the weight of my child, I was sweating and Josh had fallen twice. I threw the kids in the door and went to collect all the packages I had lost along the way. I'm exhausted just rehashing the ordeal.

Shortly after our arrival Santa appeared.



As you can tell there were two reactions from the kids: screaming and crying. My son clammed up and didn't take his eyes off the bearded man. Santa took seat in his rocking chair and all the kids sat around him. As each child was convinced to go up and tell Santa his/her Christmas wish, I had the following conversation with my son:

Me: Josh, go up and sit on Santa's lap.
Josh: No.
Me: Josh, come on. Don't you want to tell Santa what you want for Christmas?
Josh: No.
Me: Seriously, Josh. Look...all the other kids are going up there.
Josh: No, mom.
Me: How is Santa going to know what you want for Christmas?
Josh: Cuz' you're going to tell him.
Me: (Laughing) No, I'm not. Mommy will not fit on Santa's lap. (Sternly)Go up there.
Josh: No.
Me: How about I put Lauren on his lap?
Josh: DON'T DO THAT TO HER!!!!!
Me: (Laughing) He won't eat you or anything!
Josh: Um...okay

Now this child has a Christmas list longer than a mile. He can tell you a list of at least 40 things he wants at any given moment. I hear about all the toys he wants from the moment he wakes up to the moment he falls asleep. I finally get him up on Santa's lap and this is all I get....

Santa: Ho. Ho. Ho. What do you want for Christmas?
Josh: (Monotone) Funkies.
(Long awkward pause)
Me: Josh, can I get a smile?



Doesn't he look terrified? God, too funny. It totally reminded me of the scene in The Christmas Story when the little boy finally makes it up to see Santa and completely freezes up.

I threw Lauren up there and she was all smiles, of course. But by the time I got to my camera she was more interested in his sleeves and beard than anything else.



Shortly after that I loaded everything back up -- only this time with four more presents. We headed back through the obstacle course and headed home only to have Lauren scream at the top of her lungs the whole way. I should really ask Dustin how that temple in my honor is coming after all that.

Friday morning Lauren had her 6 month check-up. Like this comes as a shock to anyone....she's a big girl. She's perfectly proportioned; however, she's as big as a one year-old! She weighs 20 pounds, 8 ounces and is 28 3/4 inches long. No wonder my arms feel like they're falling off sometimes!!

Then Saturday.

Saturday stunk. We got up and headed out for some early morning errands and came home to a freezing cold house. Yeah, our 6 year-old furnace decided to quit. Seriously. We lost our air conditioner on one of the hottest days this year and now our furnace on one of the coldest. Between fixing my car door last month and the furnace this month, Dustin and I had a very generous Christmas with each other. "Oh, sweety. A furnace circuit board!!!! You shouldn't have!!"

Honestly, the whole thing makes me sick. Shelling out that kind of cash around Christmas is nauseating. However, I cranked the heat up to 78 degrees for awhile on Saturday night.....because I could.

Yesterday was another work day at the house. Dustin steam cleaned some of the carpeting; I did laundry and wrapped the last present. My own, that is. I had "wrapping" sessions a few other times and each time Dustin told me not to wrap my own gift. I mean, I had already ordered my own gift so you'd think the least he could have done is wrap it. Nonetheless, after a month of sitting on the floor, I wrapped it.

The whole scenario reminds me of our engagement story (or lack thereof). We went looking at rings, I picked one out and a week later he walked in the front door and threw the ring box at me and said, "So, you wanna?".

Like I said...temple....built...any day now.