Holiday Happenings

Hello, hello!  I'm taking a temporary break from the land of spreadsheets, ten keys and cursing Houston traffic as I frantically try to get to Em's school on time to try to catch up on our little life story here.  So, close your eyes and imagine back to about 4 weeks ago.   Do you remember what was happening?  Red cup time at Starbucks, that's right.  Do you recall what the signifies?  Mmmmhmm, correct- the most magical time of year... CHRISTMAS!

Since this year was the first with our tiny Princess, I really wanted to go all out- like Elf-style decor, Christmas caroling, Clark Griswold type things.  Luckily Ryan reined me in a little bit.  Something about Emery only being 9 months old and us setting our standards too high.  Pish posh, right?!  Anywho- he won that battle and we compromised on only 2 Christmas-y events.

The first was going to see Santa.  Much like the pumpkin-patch pictures, how could I call myself a mother without forcing my poor child to sit on a stranger's lap so that we could take pictures of her looking uncomfortable to cherish for a lifetime?  I really couldn't.  On Friday December 20th, we swung by the Bass Pro Shops at Katy Mills to check this item off our to do list before embarking on a little last minute gift buying.  We arrived in Bass Pro at about 9:30, meandered over to Santa's Wonderland at about 9:38 and noticed no one was there.  So we wandered around seeing if any Bass Pro items were beckoning to be wrapped up and given to our family for Christmas.  Around 9:47 we decided to go get in line and boom- there were, I kid you not, like 15 people in line.  So lesson learned- if you see no line, you MAKE that line, people.

Santa, in all his glory, surfaced at about 10 and all the kids and parents in line started smiling and getting themselves gussied up.  At about 10:05 Santa's elves were starting to look a little nervous and children started getting a little antsy.  At 10:09, an elf started handing out candy canes and we knew we were in trouble.  Apparently elves are better at building toys than they are at decoding new fangled camera technology.  Around 10:15 or so the elves gave us permission to just get a snap on our camera phones as they still couldn't get the camera up and running.  Smart little elves because I think they were on the verge of witnessing a Walmart/Black Friday situation.

So, I apologize for the lack of quality of the photo, I'm just impressed she didn't throw a total fit.  Memory: made.

Sir, Daddy said no one except him can hold my hand until I'm 45.

Dad, you seeing this?  Mom?  Little help?

Last on that same day, we embarked on another McMartin family adventure.  We took our motley crew down to the Houston Zoo to get our Zoo-light on.  I was convinced that despite it cutting slightly into her bedtime, that Em would looooove the lights and the people-watching.  If there's one thing our crazy lady loves, it's watching herself some people.

We arrived with bells on and anticipation levels nearly as high as the humidity factor (please excuse my hair situation).  I think the kiddos were underwhelmed.  Like, as underwhelmed as I would be with a block of cheese for my birthday.  Nonetheless, we had an amazing time with the kiddos as always.  You know this Mama is up for trying again next year.  Thanks for a great time anyway, Melanie, Jonathan, Jake & baby guuuuurl.  We love you!

Taking a pic with the entrance lights was a hot commodity.  You take what you can get!

Tell me that isn't the best looking family of 4 you have ever seen?

The pictures really don't do this justice- I highly recommend going if you can.

Just a giraffe and purpley blue zebra doing their thang.

Obviously Mama was mistaken when she thought the boogie would dig this.

Hippos, elephants and light pools- oh my!

Monkeys? Nah, not my thing.

Purdee tree.

Still unenthused.  Why should I look good in this pic when you're working with that hair, Mama?

Ahhh, this was seriously ah-mazing.

Love me some McClain!

This was probably my favorite part of the whole thing.

Can't wait to see what new Christmas adventures Emery & I can come up with to drag Daddy along for next year!