Santa 2008

In one of my "lets get organized" fits sometime last month, (about the time I was making a zillion dr./dentist appointments), I had the foresight to make our appointment to see Santa Claus. No kidding, at the Mall of America, you can now schedule your time in advance! Of course, I couldn't forsee that we'd get our first dusting of snow on that night, which meant that the usual 45 minute trip to the mall turned into an hour and a half... sigh. Oh, well!

I was dismayed to find out that the "appointment" Santa wasn't quite as santa-ish as their regular "stand in line for hours" Santa. I guess if you have to wait you get the real deal. This Santa was great with the kids, but a little small. Way to skinny, and I think William was taller than him.

One thing I like about the Santa(s) at the MOA is that they actually take time to visit with the kids. They all sit on the floor and have about a 5 minute dialog before they do the pictures. During this dialog, Santa reminds all the kiddos to be good and mind their parents, and eat their vegetables. Santa asked each kid what their favorite vegetable was:

William: "Peppers." (This kid definitely got the hot and spicy Mexican genes that seemed to skip me over)

Madison: "Broccoli" (also known as trees, it's been her favorite since she was 2)

Caden: "French Fries." (insert head smack)

Yes, I suppose that technically real french fries are a vegetable. I have a feeling that he was talking about the McDonald's variety, though, and I'm not so sure about the vegetable content in those. It got quite the belly laugh out of Santa and a giggle out of Santa's elves, and anyone else that heard him. Yes, Caden is so far my only picky child. Doesn't touch much for veggies, and doesn't eat his dinner (or lunch) half the time. Thankfully, he's a big fan of milk and breakfast cereal, so he won't starve anytime soon.

Here's this years Santa pic, I think it turned out nice! Merry Christmas!

Utter Exhaustion...

Yikes, so I didn't do so great on the blog front last month... this is such a busy time of year! When I re-entered the work force, I knew that there would be a trade off with my job - the seasonality of our product would allow me to spend lots of time playing with the family in the spring/summer, but time is at a major premium this time of year. I'm ok with this, but after weekends like the one I just had, I really question my sanity. The store that I work for opened at 10 PM on Thanksgiving night and stayed open for 24 hours. I headed over around 8:30 pm and was surprised how crowded the area already was. I planned to stay until around midnight to make sure that things got off to a smooth start, but that was not to be. I didn't get out of there until after 3 AM, and I'd been planning come back at 8 AM - that got pushed back a bit. I had a bit of a run in with mall security, who (being the bullies that they are) were trying to tell customers that they couldn't turn down the road that accesses our parking lot because it was full. (Our store is situated directly behind the outlet mall). Freakin' idiots. They were actually sending people away that were saying they were trying to get to us. It was utter madness, I cannot fathom the number of people willing to go shopping at that ungodly hour, but we made it through. Only a few more weeks, and then we get to make the trip to UT to see Grandma and Grandpa Bradford, The Hensons, and lots of friends - we're ALL very excited for that!

In other news, the television that is up in our room died. It had a nice long life, I bought it with my ex when William was just a baby - it was time to replace it. Brent got a steal of a deal on a 46" Sony LCD (thank you Slickdeals). I have to say that Caden is in heaven not that he gets to watch his Wonderpets in the evenings on HD. Actually, I'm probably lying, I don't think Noggin broadcasts in HD - but you get the picture.

Kids are all doing well. Madison has a swim meet this Saturday and her first piano recital this Sunday. William is done with club swimming and started with the Middle School swim team today. Caden is excited about Christmas. We have an appointment to see Santa and get pics at the Mall of America this Friday - he told me that he want Lightning McQueen and a Butterfly toy (???) for Christmas.

Here's some pics of the kids from Thanksgiving - I wish everyone a safe and Happy Holiday Season!