One week 'til Christmas

Weston has been pretty busy this morning. While I was putting in a load of laundry, he was busy opening up some of the presents I wrapped late last night...

(I have to admit that the main reason it was so late is that I decided to read a snippet from the book I got for my brother, but then got engrossed in it and kept reading until almost midnight - do you think it would be rude to borrow it from him after he's done?) My mom found this HUGE box of precious little clothes from when my brother and I were
babies! It was such a fun find, and while we were digging through the box of cute little mittens, sweaters, and shoes, Weston was busy dumping out the holiday trail mix in search of all things chocolate -which he quickly devoured. Now all that remains are a few stray nuts.

After cleaning up the nut mess Weston came into my mom's room where we were sorting through the baby clothes. As the sugar-high from eating all that chocolate set in, he ran around the room until he discovered an unwrapped Christmas present intended for him - a story reader of the movie Cars. Being the softie that she is (after all, she is the grandma), mom decided he could have just this one gift early. Man, was he excited!! Here is one of the precious little sweaters from when I was a baby. Also, the sweet satiny little infant shoes. How I wish we would have found this box about 2 months ago! Weston is not always a trouble-maker. In fact, earlier this week he worked very hard helping put up the Christmas tree!I don't think any amount of bribing could have persuaded that kid to look at me long enough for a picture. He was way too focused on the work at hand! What has Sophie been up to, meanwhile? Just being her cute little self. And, of course, modeling my old bonnet and booties!P.S. While writing this post, Weston has again been busy... this time dumping a myriad of items into the washing machine including but not limited to: several pieces of the nativity set, ornaments, ribbon, nuts, jingle bells, hair pins, cat food, and hand soap.

Charming.

Well, at least I'm never bored!

Saturday

A few things I learned while shopping Saturday:

1. While its appeal totally eludes me, the Snuggie must be incredibly popular because it is sold in every store - even the kitchen store. Why?

2. The fishing demonstration at the Bass Pro Shop is really just a way to sell fishing supplies.

3. Despite its obvious stupidity, the song that goes like this: "Last Christmas I gave you my heart and the very next day you gave it away..." is apparently worth remaking over and over and over again. I think I heard that song sung at least 10 different ways in one day! Why don't they play the Grinch song, or the one about the kid who wants the hippopotamus for Christmas?

4. It is not realistic to expect a two year old to be happy about hanging out in a dressing room with his mom in the Ann Taylor outlet store after shopping all day. He would much rather do just about anything else. (poor guy)

5. We seriously need a double stroller!

We actually spent a couple of hours at Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World which is Gigantic! Wow. We went there because they had all kinds of fun and free Christmasy things for kids - a virtual wonderland where you can mail letters to Santa, do crafts, and wait in line for a long time to meet the bearded celebrity. Unless of course one of the elves comes to tell you that Santa needs to take a break but you should feel free to come back in a couple of hours (not that we would know...).

We didn't really mind, though, because there were so many awesome things to see! I was utterly astounded by the size of that place. I haven't been to a Bass Pro Shops since I was a kid, and never at Christmas time. They had multiple waterfalls and aquariums, the usual awesome displays everywhere, and just about everything Christmas.

And, I might add, a very ample handicapped stall in the ladies room with plenty of room for changing diapers, nursing, and the like -although there was no chair other than the toilet. I actually nursed Sophie standing up in there until I heard some poor lady say she was waiting to use the changing table.

This is a total digression, but it got me thinking. Everywhere you go there are handicapped restrooms. But I would be willing to bet there are FAR more nursing moms than wheelchair bound people out in public at any given time. So why are there no accommodations for nursing moms? Even just one semi-comfortable chair in the ladies room would do. Seriously. Oh well.Weston could not get enough of the waterfalls! That kid loves water. I tried taking a picture of him and Jason in front of one, but they all turned out blurry.And you can never get enough of the voracious wild animal displays!What is it about watching fish that is so soothing?

Anyway, it was a fun time. This is Sophie and me standing in line to see Santa (you know, before he ditched us!)

Argentina!

I have at least 15 awesome, witty blog entries in my mind waiting to be written. Life is endlessly busy, and there seem to be so many high priorities that get neglected at least part of the time... well, today I was just trudging along feeling somewhat defeated by the ever growing to-do list when I received a wonderful phone call! It was my husband (who still shows up on my cell phone as "love churro" because of a silly game we used to play while we were dating where we would invent terms of endearment out of food items. I think the best one of all was "greasy love chicken"... but I digress)

To cut to the chase, Jason had called to let me know that his brother had received his mission call today. You guessed it, he is going to Argentina ~ to the Buenos Aires West mission. I am so EXCITED!!! This is a wonderful day. I love my brother in law, Chris, and I have secretly been hoping he would go to Central or South America - not just so we can speak to each other in Spanish while the rest of the family has no idea what we're saying, but because there is something so very special about those crazy Hispanics! Plus, my own brother went to Argentina. I don't know what it is, I am just so thrilled. I almost cried when I heard the news!

What a great day. Here's a pic of Weston chilling with his Uncle Chris on Thanksgiving: