Happy 13th Birthday, Dawn!
Her special day conveniently included a
Christmas shopping trip to Crystal Springs; so I really loved getting to share
at least a little bit of the birthday fun with her – and with Jillian and the
other friends she brought along for the trip.
Before I get to that, let’s back up and
start from the beginning.
We skipped Tai Chi this morning because we
were busy enough getting seven people ready and out the door in time for the
seven o’clock buffet breakfast at the Inn.
Ehlana, Naomi, and I had a bit of extra fun with doing our hair and
playing dress-up; but we still managed to be ready early and we were all at the
Inn with time to spare. Michael met us
there because he went in early with his parents to help out with the prep work
for breakfast; so I made a side-trip to the kitchen to pick him up on the way
through to the dining room – and took that opportunity to share some good
morning hugs and kisses with him – and with Jacob and some other friends.
Breakfast was a whirlwind of food and
entertainment, and while that was all fun too; it didn’t really feel as though
we were there long before it was time to hurry up and rush around for a while
again – right up until we were in the minivan and had an hour and a half of
sitting around to do between home and the mall.
Miranda and Jacob had a full house for that first buffet sitting, and
mom and Aunt Leanne were busy too as they made sure that one hundred and
twenty-two kids and teens were matched up with forty-eight parents and
chaperones and in one of the forty-five vehicles that left town for the city by
eight o’clock.
That seemed especially tough for Aunt
Leanne, and while she’d reconsidered coming along with us all morning; Uncle
Adam successfully talked her into staying home and taking the day off after a
busy week that had already included one long shopping day to go with the work
and extra help for Aunt Grace and Uncle Mark.
She still went shopping around town for the big sale day here; but staying
home today really was better for her – even though I would have liked to spend
some time with her too.
Okay, that would have been about two
minutes; since we were all busy all day; but you know what I mean.
Aunt Leanne wasn’t the only girl in the
family skipping this trip. Aunt Grace
and Aunt Deborah stayed home for obvious reasons too; which is why Michael and
I were put in the travel group with Uncle Adam and Uncle Nick – so that we
could help with keeping Zack and Leah entertained during the drive time to and
from the city. That wasn’t exactly the
most exciting option we could have gotten; but we still had fun with my cousins
– especially when Zack was sleeping.
Just kidding, Zack! ;^)
Actually, Zack is developing quite the
unique little ‘public’ character as he moves into his toddler phase, and while
there is obviously a lot of Aunt Leanne in him; he has his own unique sense of
humor. For anyone reading this in the future
who knew Zack as a kid, but didn’t know that he was a Magi too at the time; you
probably would have guessed that he wasn’t.
I won’t be surprised to find out some day that was exactly his intention
– to have an act so convincing that nobody would suspect his ‘secret identity’.
His antics already have a tendency to annoy
some girls, though; and he seems to enjoy bugging Leah and the other girls his
age a lot – which is why Leah was so happy to have me along to help run
interference. Michael actually took care
of most of the work for distracting Zack; but Leah and I had fun playing with
some of her toys too; and we all watched some Christmas cartoons on the
entertainment system in the minivan. I’ll
bet that the grandparents around town would have a lot fewer kids-drove-us-crazy
travel stories if they’d had entertainment systems, iPads, and portable game
systems back in the old days!
So the trip to the city was toddler-rated
and weirdly entertaining; but Michael and I were ready for some teen
interaction by the time we got to the mall.
We needed to meet up with our group first – and with Aunt Melissa, Uncle
Rick, Dawn, and the rest of their gang too; but then Mom set us free to hang
out with Rowen and Tim for an hour or so before our first turn helping out as
junior chaperones. We started out that
part of our shopping adventure with Dawn, Jillian, and the rest of their
friends; but most of those girls either wanted to do other things than we did –
or were a little too busy checking out Michael and Tim in a flirty sort of way;
so we ended up moving on and doing our own thing instead.
Michael, Rowen, and I were fairly organized
for our Christmas shopping plans, and though Tim wasn’t; we helped him to
actually get the most important gifts for his favorite people. That was the main job that Michael and I had
as junior helpers too – helping Ethan, Ehlana, and some of the other kids with
picking out gifts for their family and friends.
We were still able to do our shopping too, and Mom made sure that we had
time to do that as well; but I really loved hanging out with Ethan, Ehlana,
Naomi, Aiden, and some of the other kids whenever we were helping them.
There was a lot going on, and way too much
to include in this update; but I’ll cover some of the highlights. Topping the list of Christmas-themed fun was
our visit with Santa. Watching Ethan,
Ehlana, and the other kids in our group do that was great; but Rowen and I
probably earned the most laughs when we both sat on Santa’s knees and got our
picture taken with him. Next up on the
Christmas highlights list was probably the entire time we spent in the toy
store this afternoon – mostly because we got to play with a lot of the cool new
toys while having fun with Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden too. That was also one part of the day when I missed
Aunt Leanne the most today, since she always has fun with the toys too; but Mom
helped out with that a bit by telling us some of the toy store stories from
their trip on Tuesday.
Celebrating Dawn’s birthday while in
Christmas shopping mode seemed strange, but we were in full birthday mode at
lunchtime; and Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I were with Dawn and her gang for the
birthday party lunch in the food court.
We did the full gifts, cake, candles, and song thing in record time; and
that blast of fun was one of the highlights today while also being too short
before we all needed to get back to the shopping again.
Whether Michael and I were together and
with our friends or together and helping younger kids; it was the doing those
things with him that made the best parts of our day so great. There were some good moments when we were
doing girls’ and guys’ things separately too – like when Rowen and I picked out
gifts for Michael and Tim or we were shopping with the girls and Michael helped
to keep the boys entertained while we were looking for ‘boring’ gifts; but I’m
really glad that Michael was able to have the day off from the Inn to do this
with me. That might not be an option in
the not too distant future; so I’ll appreciate these days when I can.
Let’s move this along a bit. After lunch, we had another hour at the mall;
moved on to our favorite big-box toy store; and then did the usual wrap-up stop
at Wal-Mart. Since Mom had just done her
trip here on Tuesday, she didn’t need a supply run; so that stop was mostly
just a chance for kids and teens to finish up some gift buying. Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I had Ethan, Ehlana,
Naomi, and Aiden with us for that stop; and that’s where we picked up most of
our classmates and friends gifts. After
a season of football and cheerleading, that was a longer list for four of us;
but we managed to get most of that done – without resorting to gift cards or
other generic gifts.
Michael and I were back with the same
travel group, and everyone stopped somewhere for food to go before heading out
of the city; so we kept busy for a while as we ate and helped Zack and Leah to
eat too. It was movie time after that,
though, and while I joked about Zack sleeping; he and Leah both napped pretty
much from that point until we got home again and needed to start unloading the
minivan. We did that at Uncle Nick’s
house first; then at Uncle Adam’s before Michael and I carried our own things
back to our own homes.
That sounds like more work than it was
because most of our things were in Dad’s truck or Mom’s minivan anyway; and
they already had everything unloaded by the time I got home. I did take one load over to Michael’s house
after dropping my load off; and then brought him home with me for the
evening. We did a hot chocolate and
snacks break in the kitchen with Mom and Dad; and then Michael and I took Ethan
and Ehlana up to the lounge with us to watch a Christmas show with them while
Mom and Dad did some work in the office before bedtime.
We watched one of the twins’ favorite
Christmas cartoons – Holly and Hal Moose – Our Uplifting Christmas
Adventure. That one is popular with most
of the younger kids in town; which is why Michael and I are learning the song
from the show for one of the acts in the school Christmas pageant. It is a cute little show, and we had fun with
Ethan and Ehlana; but I was also very glad to get some quality alone time with
Michael after Mom and Dad caught the end of the show with us and then took
Ethan and Ehlana with them when they were all ready to go to bed for the night.
Have I mentioned recently that Michael and
I do not get enough alone time? We did our
best to make up for that tonight.
Clothing was optional for our play time, and though Michael had a
curfew; a bit of time-phasing gave us all of the time we needed to have as much
make-out fun as we wanted before we were ready to end out night with a bit of
quiet cuddling. With the added use of
Magi power for more than just the time-phase; I’ll rate that part of our
evening as right at the top of the hot scale – which has a lot to do with why I
wish that we’d just pretended to fall asleep together on the sofa and I kept
Michael here for the rest of the night.
As usual, don’t take those comments to mean
more than they do – we’ve made our own intimate play rules; and we have the
self-control to stick to them. It isn’t
as though we haven’t both needed to learn to be in control at all times from
when we were babies; so doing that when it comes to our sexual relationship
shouldn’t be a surprise to any Magi.
Then again, Violet found out about her own
abilities during a minor make-out session, and though she didn’t know what it
was at the time; I’d say that has to be one of the more interesting ways for a
Magi to find out about things like that! ;^)
Speaking of Violet, I doubt she’s thinking
about make-out sessions tonight – or having as much fun as Michael and I did
today while getting ready for her final exams this weekend. I’ll do the teen update tomorrow night,
though; since I’m tired and ready to wrap this up and get some sleep.
Michael went home at twelve-thirty, and
after seeing him out; I grabbed a quick shower, got ready for bed, and was
snuggling with Mandy by one o’clock. My
computer checks haven’t taken long, and while I took care of one quick family
business job; I’ll still be in nap mode by one-thirty if I hurry and get this
done. There really was so much going on
that I can’t report all of it here; but I guess we have covered most of the
highlights for my personal day; and I’m sure that everyone else keeping Magi
journals now will have their own reports; so my work here is done – except for
the daily Christmas music video.
I love the classic Christmas songs as much
as anyone, but I enjoy hearing original, new songs too; so here’s a comparatively
recent addition to lots of teens’ Christmas music playlists – mine included.
May the Magi Force be with you!
