Mall Chick

Another day, another 5:30am wake-up call. Chad's colleagues need to get over this whole 8am meeting thing - not a fan, folks. I think tomorrow morning is going to be even a few minutes earlier for me. Complain, complain, complain, I know. I guess I should just feel lucky that I am able to get out every morning to the gym before Chad leaves. It's just so hard when it's dark and cold!

The boys and I met up with 4 other moms and their kids at the mall today. I had so much fun - just a great group of people to spend the morning with. We went to the bookstore for a storytime, but it was canceled... so we held our own impromptu storytime in their store, with Sheri-Lynne doing most of the reading. Then, we rode the little mall kiddie rides, threw pennies in the fountain and that got pizza at whatever the pizza restaurant is there - Papa Gino's or John's or Neidermeyer's or something. As the boys and I were walking back through the mall to the exit where our car was parked, who should we see but Old St. Nick himself? Santa Claus was about to go on break from his picture-posing responsibilities, but when he saw Parker burst into a flat out sprint heading straight for him, he paused and waited for us to get there, which was super nice of him. Parker ran right up to him and said, "You are coming to our house on Christmas!", to which Santa heartily agreed and added, "Be sure to leave out some cookies and milk for me!" No wonder he's got a belly like a bowlful of jelly with all those midnight snacks. Brandon was not quite as impressed with Santa as Parker was... he just kind of said hello and waited for us to finish up. I'm not sure that Brandon is really buying the whole Santa thing... or maybe he just didn't want to waste his time on one of Santa's helpers, as we explained to him recently that Santa has helpers for all his many appearances around town. Anyway, Parker was on cloud 9.

One bit of very bad news today... it looks like my dear friend Sheri-Lynne might be forced to move. I don't think it's all definite yet, and I think we are all hoping for a Christmas miracle, but it looks like her husband may have to take a position with his company in Montreal. It may be that or be deported! I'm really trying not to think about it because it's very upsetting to think about not having Sheri-Lynne in my life on a daily basis anymore. I may chain myself to her mini-van as a protest.