The Hustle and Bustle of Christmas

Well I hope that everyone enjoyed their Christmas. We had a really nice Christmas here in Florida. We had 18 people for dinner and everything turned out great.

I do have a funny story to share. You could call it a "Strayer Moment" or a "Strayer Episode" that lasted over a few days!!!! It started when we got back from PA and I was going to keep Addison that Thursday and Friday. My goal while I had her was to take her to get a picture with Santa. Well, Thursday turned out to be extremely busy and we didn't get to go, but I did go to Babies R Us to buy a stroller so that I had it when we went shopping. So on Friday, Jenn came and off we were to take Addison to see Santa. We didn't get to the mall until 4:30 or so, and as you can imagine, the Friday before Christmas, parking was impossible. So we get out of the car and go to pull the stroller out of the box to put Addison in and found it to be in pieces! So there we are in the middle of the parking lot, reading instructions on how to put this thing together, having to tell everyone that stopped to ask "are you leaving" that no, they can't have our parking spot! Well we get into the mall and over to Santa who we find is "on a break" until 5:30pm. Okay, we'll come back. So off to Macy's we go because when I left PA, Donna was gracious enough to share her coupons with me, plus Jenn had money on a gift card. Our goal was to spend $150 to get $35 in savings, and buy the rest with Jenn's gift card. Well, who knew it would be so hard to spend $150! We were in Macy's for about 1 1/2 hours, had to run back to the car to get water for Addison's bottle, had to buy a blanket to prop her up in the stroller that she was too small for, and lost two binkies in the process of spending our $150! And worst of all, Jenn forgot she used most of her gift card and only had about $50 remaining! In the meantime, Angela's upset because we were later than anticipated and she and Jonas had dinner plans that included Addison. We're finally on our way to see Santa at about 6:30pm and at this time I'm carrying Addison who was a litle tired of being in the stroller, but still looked cute in her pretty Christmas dress, when this strange woman approaches me and says "excuse me ma'am, but do you know you're baby is spitting up on you? Well!!!!! Jenn and I look down to see baby puke all down the front of my RED sweater. Well, needless to say, we were laughing sooooo hard that I almost pee'd my pants! So after cleaning up, we were off to see Santa. The line was about a 30 minute wait but as we looked at Santa, he was pretty lame looking. He just sat there like a dummy and didn't even close his mouth. So Jenn and I didn't want Addison taking a picture with this guy....what kind of memory would that be! But I wasn't going to be the one to tell Angela that not only are we late for her dinner plans but we're not coming home with a picture of Addison with Santa! So Jenn did the deed and off we were. The plan was to meet up with Angela in the morning and take Addison to the Milennia Mall which was rumored to have the "Best" Santa. So the next day Jenn and I get to the mall, pull out the stroller and toys and go to pull out the new blanket used to prop up Addison in her new stroller and low and behold we don't have the blanket, which by the way was sitting at home with Addison's cleaned Christmas outfit!!!! Well you can imagine how upset I am as I can't possibly buy another Christmas outfit (she has about 8!) just to take a picture. So we're walking in the mall with a stroller (no baby) when Jenn stops to say Mom.....someone's going to stop us and say "Ma'am, do you know your baby's missing?" Well needless to say we were once again hysterically laughing, with me doubled over when about 8 fireman come out of the mall. One see's me doubled over and rushes over to see if I'm okay. He figured out the problem when he found us laughing hysterically. Shortly later we were in the mall with Angela and Addison and standing in line (1 hour) to get the perfect picture with Santa (less the Christmas outfit).

Hope you enjoyed the story as much as we enjoyed the experience. Below are the pics: