Playing Santa

Soooo......IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!!!

Naturally, I am in an all-around great mood and playing the Christmas episode of Glee on constant repeat all day, every day.

My second craft show ever is this coming Saturday and I am busy, busy, busy.  I am having a hard time keeping myself from going into full Christmas mode until I get this show under my belt, but I cannot hold off on decorating a tree much longer. We are finally getting our Christmas tree tonight when Tony gets home from work and I am so excited about I could poop my pants.  I already made dinner this morning in the crock pot so I have nothing to stop me from my tree tonight!

Yesterday, the girls and I went to the Eden Prairie mall to get my iPhone screen fixed (ugh) and do a little  Christmas shopping.  Upon arriving, I put $5 into the stroller rental machine to get a double stroller, and out popped a single.  Clara naturally crawled in and out of it a dozen times before I could attempt to put it back and get my $2 deposit back.  Well, the deposit never came back and I was left with no stroller and five less dollars in my purse.

Clara's new thing is holding hands with Lucy, so I thought maybe we could hold hands together and everyone would be nice and cooperative.  How optimistic of me.  Not even one store later and I was doing the constant, "Clara, come on, Honey, 1......2....." as she hid in corners and laughed at me.  I threatened to text Santa, but that only works on Lucy at this point.

Once the girls discovered the escalators, it was over.  We went down the escalator to get some coffee and Lucy, who typically does very well on escalators, was quickly doing the splits at the top as I was wrestling Clara trying to keep her from running down the moving stairs.  Apparently it scared Lucy a bit, because after coffee, on our way back up, Lucy was too reluctant to get on with us and was left standing at the bottom, crying, as I am again wrestling Clara trying to hold her and keep her from jumping over the side of the escalator.  I yelled down to Lu, telling her we are coming back down to get her.  So we take the escalator back down, and I thought she got on with us onthe way back up, but what do you know, it happens again......and then again......  The Nintendo kiosk workers were entertained, I'm sure.  They even stopped playing Just Dance on the Wii for a whole two minutes to just watch.

By now I am dripping sweat, on the verge of tears myself, and pissed at Prairie Center for their machine not working, and getting judgmental looks from all the other moms with their children sitting nicely in strollers. Though it's unlike me, I found the management office to demand a refund.

Christmas shopping is getting a little more challenging with each day.  Lucy is like a hawk, attacking each shopping bag that comes into the house.  She already found some clothes a couple of weeks ago in a BabyGap bag that were supposed to be for Christmas, yelling "Mommy!!  My new shoes from my Christmas list!!"

If she is anything like me as a child (unwrapping my gifts under the tree and then re-wrapping them) then I am in serious trouble.  After several years of hiding all of my wrapped gifts, my mom thought I was mature enough not to open my gifts before Christmas by age 17.  She walked in on me re-wrapping a beautiful sweater my senior year of high school.  She threatened to take it back and I promised I wouldn't do it again if I could keep that sweater!

I haven't unwrapped a gift early ever since.