Best Christmas shopping day ever so far!
Starting out with a breakfast buffet at the Inn was awesome; and so was getting to spend the travel
time each way with Grandma and Grandpa.
I should admit that my appreciation for transportation comfort was
fairly high today after riding the school bus last night; and that’s also why
some of my favorite ‘country kids’ friends got bonus hugs from me when we
bumped into them around the Mall this morning.
Michael and Rebecca were helping out at the Inn up until the
first wave of food went out to the buffet tables, and then they joined all of
the shoppers in the dining room – Michael with Rowen, Tim, and me; and Rebecca
with Jenny, Garth, and a group of their friends. The place was pretty much full without any
extra customers, but Jacob and Miranda were continuing the buffet for most of
the morning; and expected to have another full house once we were on the road
for Crystal Springs.
I was totally out of the loop for the organization side of the trip, so
I got to enjoy the food and have fun with my friends while Mom was very busy
with checking her lists and making sure that every kid, teen, and adult was
accounted for and in groups and vehicles before she and Aunt Grace hit the road
with Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden in the minivan with them.
Grandma and Grandpa didn’t even need to wait for the last
group today, and we were on the road by shortly before eight o’clock. Rowen insisted that she and Tim sit in the
back so that Michael and I could talk with them and my grandparents from the
middle seats, and that worked for me; but they were definitely more comfortable
cuddling together for the trip home tonight while Michael and I just ended up
settling for holding hands when we conceded that our attempts to span the gap
between our seats so we could cuddle weren’t going to work. I’m sure that Rowen found it convenient that
one side of the back bench was filled with shopping bags so that she had to sit
in the middle right next to Tim too. You’re
welcome, guys, and I’m glad I could help you out with that, but for the record;
I set that up expecting that Michael and I would be switching places with you
for the trip home. Who knew that you’d
pick today to decide that the back bench seat isn’t really all that
uncomfortable or too cold?
The lack of cuddle time with Michael wasn’t really that big
of a deal, and I really did enjoy the time with my grandparents. It’s funny that they’ve been home all fall,
yet we’ve all been so busy that those three hours on the road with them is the
most time I’ve spent with them since summer – at least when we weren’t sharing
time with the rest of our family and friends.
I should try and fit more of that into my schedule before they start
traveling again in the New Year, though as usual; I have no idea how I’m going
to make that happen. I’ll try not to let
that kind of stuff bother me, and just be grateful for the time we did get to
spend together today. Even Tim would
probably admit that my Grandfather in particular is really good at making
travel time fun and entertaining; and he has the best travel stories for sure!
Moving along, we got to the Mall nearly twenty minutes ahead
of Mom, Dad, and everyone traveling with them in the last group of vehicles; so
Grandma and Grandpa set us free to get started on our shopping adventure. We were given an ‘emergency’ cell phone too,
but even in a big mall, with about ten percent of the entire population of
Witch Falls and the Ridge River district; we rarely went more than a couple of
minutes without bumping into someone we knew.
Text messages with Mom let us keep in touch. We met up with them for a bit of joint
shopping not long after they were in the mall too; and that included some
shopping time with Dawn, Jillian, and their friends too.
Michael and Tim definitely earned some points with those
friends, and according to the email Dawn sent me; the comments after we’d left
included offers to move to Witch Falls or adopting and helping poor small-town
boys like ours to adapt to big-city life.
Since Jillian is the only friend of Dawn’s that I could ever see
actually enjoying life in our little town, I don’t think we’ll have to deal
with that, and while I have obvious issues with other girls wanting to adopt my
boyfriend, Dawn’s friends weren’t looking at Michael or Tim in a big brother
sort of way; so I’m sure they’ll figure out soon enough that wouldn’t work for
them either.
We were so busy today, that there’s no way to cover
everything here; so let’s just go with some highlights.
Getting our pictures taken with Santa as couples was silly
and fun – especially since we did that while helping out with the Santa visits
for Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, Aiden, Leah, and some of the other kids. If you want to know the difference between
Michael and Tim, ask to see those pictures.
Michael stood next to us while I sat on Santa’s knee while Tim shared
the big guy’s lap with Rowen and had an arm around his shoulders. I’m definitely biased, but Ethan and Ehlana
had the cutest Santa pictures; including the one they had taken with Naomi and
Aiden that had the girls on Santa’s lap and the boys standing next to them.
I’m sure that it was just random chance that had Ethan next
to Naomi and Aiden with Ehlana for that photo – not!
Oh, and Naomi, yes, I saw that even though the camera didn’t
catch it. Thanks for that cute little
memory; and I love you.
Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I had some shopping time with the
twins and their friends between the time we did those pictures and lunchtime
while giving Mom and Dad a bit of a break.
We did half of that shopping together and the other half split up as
needed to buy ‘friends’ gifts. The four
of us were on kid control duty before and during lunch while others dealt with
getting food or taking shopping bags out to the vehicles. Dawn’s little family birthday celebration
while we ate was entertaining; but I didn’t actually get to spend much time
with her. There was just too much
competition for her attention and not enough time before it was time to move on
to more shopping fun. We had another
hour of mall time after that when we were on our own again before we moved on
to spend a couple of hours at the big-box toy store.
Being there with Michael and Tim was a lot different; though
Tim is actually a lot like Aunt Leanne when it comes to playing with the toys –
the only difference being which toys they like to play with. Aunt Leanne wasn’t playing video games when
she was there on the Moms’ trip; and the only robotic animals Tim liked were
the dinosaurs.
While we spent more time with my family today, Michael and I
also had some fun cameo moments with his sister and cousins too. We had a little shopping time at the toy
store with Jessica and Ryan; Rebecca spent a little time with us at both the
mall and the toy store when she and Jenny were split up for a while – either
because of shopping plans or when Jenny and Garth were having a bit too much
fun and she needed a break from them.
The last stop of the day, as usual, was at Wal-Mart. I had most of my shopping done by then; and
spent as much time helping out with younger kids as I did doing anything
else. Grandma and Grandpa were ready to
take a break by then, so they relaxed while the rest of us continued playing –
though they might have headed home with the other half of the shoppers who had
been ready to leave after finishing up at the toy store if they’d had a
different group of passengers. That did
give them a chance to talk with Uncle Rick and Aunt Melissa before they headed
back to Woodvale, and with some of the other parents who took short breaks too.
Just as with everything else today, we didn’t seem to have
nearly enough time to say goodbye when we were ready to head home to Witch
Falls or Woodvale; but at least we’ll see the Rice family when they’re home for
the weekend between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Since we still had around eighty shoppers
from home, we split up and hit drive-thru windows at several fast food joints
to speed up the food-to-go process; and Grandpa had us on the highway by
seven-thirty. The trip home was a lot
quieter than the one to the city; and then we had another blast of busy while
Grandpa dropped Tim, Rowen, Michael, and me off before heading home with plans
to go straight to bed after unloading their own purchases.
Michael and I were at my house in time to help unload both
the minivan and truck; and we were busy until ten o’clock with that before we
helped to tuck Ethan and Ehlana into their beds. Mom and Dad headed for bed shortly after that
too while Michael and I came up to my room.
We practiced the song we’re doing for the Christmas concert first;
watched a Christmas movie; wrapped some gifts; and managed to fit in a bit of
quality make-out time too before he needed to head home at midnight.
That was a perfect way to end a really great day; and I’ve
been smiling the entire time since saying goodnight to Michael in a mostly
non-verbal sort of way. There were a few
snowflakes starting to fall when he walked home, and we should have a little
dusting on the ground by morning; but we’re only likely going to see a
half-inch or so of the white fluffy stuff now instead of the two or three
inches they’d called for a few days ago.
That won’t last long, so I really hope we’ll get more snow between now
and Christmas!
It’s closing in on one o’clock now, and time for me to get
some sleep. Dad’s going to be playing
catch up on his work tomorrow after taking the day off today, but Michael, Tim,
Rowen, and I have a birthday party to go to tomorrow afternoon that includes
dinner at the Inn; and Michael and I are both going to help out in the kitchen
before and after dinner too so we’re in for another busy day. We’ll need to get around to our weekend
homework sometime too, but we may end up doing that on our own if we can’t make
time to study together. That’s okay with
me once in a while, since I can work faster that way; though it isn’t as much
fun as when we’re hanging out together.
That’s enough of the news for today, and I really do want to
get off to sleep; so...
...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
