Our Week - The One with the Mall Santa and Lots of Christmas Movies

Last week was pretty low-key considering we’re right in the heart of the holiday season.  I think the reason last week was low-key is because every single commitment we have for the holiday season is packed into this week and it is pure chaos.  Seriously, we are right in the midst of aaaallll the Christmas dinners, Christmas parties, Christmas programs, and Christmas planning/shopping this week.  It's been nuts!

Monday, December 9

Unfortunately I kicked off Monday with a sore throat.  Womp womp.  This is the first time I’ve been sick pretty much all year so I really can’t complain, but it’s just unfortunate that it had to happen right before Christmas.  Although, better last week than this week or next week, I suppose!  Fortunately I didn't feel bad enough to need to stay in bed, so I still managed to have a pretty productive day, getting lots of blog work done. 

I had a check-up with my GI doc and he has officially released me!  That’ll be one less doctor in 2020, y’all!  Cheers to that! 

Monday evening was spent at home.  I cooked dinner and then spent the evening solving some puzzles that Jacob created.  He recently read a book about some kid who solves mysteries and he got the idea to make these different puzzles.  He’s been creating his own ever since and I love it.

Tuesday, December 10

Tuesday morning I volunteered at the school doing some data entry for raffle ticket sales for our upcoming ball in January.  The students have been selling the tickets like crazy so we had lots of them to enter into the system.  I ended up being there for about two hours, and then I ran over to our outreach center to drop our Christmas gift donations. 

On the way home I stopped by the library to check out a new stack of books for Jacob.  His AR requirements are more demanding than ever this year so he is flying through books like it’s his job, and even though he’s flying through, it sometimes feels impossible for him to meet his goal but he’s been doing it!

Tuesday evening, I left B and the kids at home to attend my first ever book club meeting!  My friend Adrienne has been trying to get me to join her book club for months, but I haven’t had the time to read since school started in August.  For their December meeting, they didn’t read a book, and instead they had a favorite things + favorite book exchange at a local Italian restaurant, so I thought that would be the perfect time to join and meet the other ladies.  Hopefully next month I’ll be able to get my act together and actually read the book they choose.  Haha.

The dinner went well.  The food was delicious as always and all of the ladies were super sweet.  There were ten of us altogether so we had a big group and I’m looking forward to getting to know each of them better in the future.

Wednesday, December 11

Wednesday I spent the whole day working on the blog.  I’m so far ahead on blog posts and I’m loving it!  It’s definitely made this week a lot less stressful.

Wednesday after school the kids and I went home and got their homework done, and then we met B at the mall when he got off of work.  Even though we see Santa at Breakfast with Santa each year, the kids also love to see the mall Santa.  We’ve been seeing the mall Santa way longer than Breakfast with Santa anyway.  We always go on a random weeknight right after B gets off of work because there’s never a wait and it works like a charm every single year!

We’ve been seeing the same mall Santa since Jacob was born, and I was crushed to find that our usual guy wasn’t there this year.  I asked about him and I was told he’s been having some health issues so he couldn’t do it this year.  Talk about a heartbreaker!  We have eight years worth of pictures with him, and I’m so sad that year nine had to be with someone different.  I just hope he recovers, though.

The kids didn’t seem to notice that he was different this year, although for the first time ever, they did say something about the fact that the mall Santa looked different from the Santa at Breakfast with Santa.  I explained to them that all of the store Santas are Santa’s helpers because the real Santa has to be at the North Pole preparing for Christmas.  :o) 

Their visit with him went well and they both said that they asked for the same things that they asked for at Breakfast with Santa last week – a LEGO Star Wars Y-Wing and B-Wing for Jacob, and a flower shaped pillow and a Hatchimals for Olivia.

After visiting with Santa for a few minutes, the kids wanted to continue with their tradition of riding the kiddie rides in the mall.  Both of them are getting so big they could barely fit in the rides, but they both wanted to play on them anyway.  Haha.  I have a feeling this may be the last year for that, though!  Olivia also saw her buddies, Anna and Elsa, in the window at Claire's and she walked over, posed with them, and asked me to take a picture.  She is so my child!

After they rode a handful of the rides, we walked to the food court and had Chick-Fil-A for dinner.  We’ve had this same tradition for a few years now, and it always seems to work out nicely.  Nobody wants to wait two hours to see Santa so it’s nice to walk straight up and not have to wait at all!

Thursday, December 12

Thursday I had intended to go to the gym, but I still wasn’t feeling well nor had I slept well all week because of my cold, so I skipped it and did a bunch of work at home instead.  It was rainy and cold all day, so it was nice to hole up with my hot tea and Christmas lights.

Friday, December 13

Friday was much of the same – sore throat, tired from not sleeping well, rainy, and cold – so I dropped the kids at school and then headed straight back home for hot tea, a warm blanket, and Christmas tunes while I worked on the blog. 

We had a wedding shower for Jacob’s teacher Friday afternoon so I headed up there a little early before dropoff to help out with that.  The kids all surprised their teacher when she walked in the room, and they all piled on her for a huge group hug.  I just love those sweet kiddos.  Jacob has such a great class!

I also got this picture from Olivia's assistant teacher at school... there she goes calling me by my actual name again!  Y'all, this girl.  She is a piece of work!

Friday evening we had to meet someone to make a sale on Facebook Marketplace, so while we were out, we grabbed dinner at one of our local places.  B and I had some beers and I had my favorite hot dog with sambal aioli, avocado, cilantro, and goat cheese, and the kids and B played ping pong.  They’ve been eyeing that ping pong table for months every time we go, but there are usually people on it, and they were so excited that it was finally free!  And Jacob seems to be a natural at ping pong!  He’s probably better than me!  Haha.

It was a cold and rainy evening, so we headed home after dinner, put a fire in the fireplace, and snuggled up on the couch in our PJs while we watched Elf.  Olivia wanted hot chocolate with peppermint marshmallows and a candy cane and Jacob opted for some leftover Halloween candy.

After Elf, we put the kids to bed and then B and I had our 16th annual viewing of Love Actually.  My gosh, I love that movie so much!  All the warm and fuzzies at the end!  Fun fact, that movie came out just a couple of months after B and I started dating, so it’s the same age as our relationship.  That makes me love it even more.  ;o) 

Saturday, December 14

Saturday morning we had cinnamon rolls and watched Home Alone.  I updated some lists in my planner and made one last long list of everything that’s left to be done before Christmas while we watched.  I also got a few Christmas gifts wrapped while I sipped my hot cinnamon tea and watched the movie.

By the time I was done wrapping I was feeling exhausted.  I think all of my sleepless nights and my stupid cold finally caught up with me, and I knew that I would be regretting it if I didn’t take it easy the rest of the day, so I gave myself permission to relax.  I curled up on the couch by the Christmas tree with my Christmas Shopaholic book, Maui, and a snuggly blanket, and I read and slept for the rest of the afternoon. 

I woke up around 3:30 and I felt like a new woman!  I was still snotty and coughing my head off, but at least I had some energy!  We got ready and headed to 5:30 mass and then went to our favorite Mexican place for dinner to celebrate my Aunt Joy for her birthday.  Unfortunately several other family members went down with other illnesses and they weren’t able to attend, but we still had a good time.  

On the way home the kids asked to drive around and look at Christmas lights, so we drove around our own neighborhood for a bit.  Our neighborhood is pretty large, so there are lots of houses to see.  By the time we arrived back at home it was pretty late, so we sent the kids straight to bed and then B and I curled up on the couch for another Christmas movie.  We originally talked about watching Die Hard because – YES, IT IS TOTALLY A CHRISTMAS MOVIE! – but then B discovered that Daddy’s Home 2 is on Amazon streaming, so we watched that instead.  We saw it in the theater when it came out and we remember thinking it was hilarious, and it didn’t disappoint the second time around either.  It’s a Christmas movie, too, so if you haven’t seen it and you’re looking for something Christmasy that’s also funny, check it out!

Sunday, December 15

Sunday morning was another lazy morning.  We made homemade waffles for breakfast and then we all piled on the couch and watched Home Alone 2.  My goal was to take it easy all weekend and give my body time to rest and heal because I knew the upcoming week was going to be crazy and I’d need to be at 100%.  During our movie-watching, Olivia grabbed my phone and snapped a bunch of pictures of our coziness.  :o)

We left the house around lunchtime and grabbed some Five Guys, and then we made a quick trip to Walmart to let the kids pick out some gingerbread house kits.  They’ve been begging to do them this year and I wanted them to be able to pick the ones that they wanted.  Jacob chose the same Super Mario Brothers kit he built last year and Olivia chose a Frozen 2 kit… surprise surprise.  Haha.

We headed to the park after that since we’d been cooped up the day before at home.  It was a beautiful cool day and we stayed at the park for over an hour letting the kids play on the playground and walk the trails.  We found a long vine hanging from a tall tree and the kids took turns swinging on it like Tarzan.  Brian decided he wanted to have a go and the vine broke before he could even put all of his weight on it.  Whoops.  Haha.

On another note, we found this beautiful little clearing in a park that we've been to tons of other times before... I think I may have found next year's picture-taking spot!

We headed home after the park because Jacob had some serious reading to do to catch up on his AR reading for the quarter, and he and I made it through the last half of one of his Diary of a Wimpy Kid books while B and Olivia read her AR book together.

B and the kids piled on the playroom couch to continue their Sunday tradition of Zelda on our old Nintendo Wii after that and I got the house and things ready for Monday.

My Momma made beef strew and beer bread for dinner and it was the perfect dinner to have after battling that cold all week.  I ate lots of soups and drank lots of hot tea all week last week since it felt so good on my throat.  I’ve never had a sore throat last for seven days like it did this time and it was just miserable. 

Well, happy Thursday, y’all!!!!  The most joyful week of the whole year is upon us and I could not be happier!  Soak it all up!!